Wake Up Call
by Hannah554
Summary: She was scared, she didn't understand what was happening. My fix it for 'Pay Up' and of course it's Flack/Angell with a little Danny/Lindsay.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: So I was wondering around YouTube and 'Pay Up' was everywhere, I've been trying like hell to avoid it but it seems intent on finding me. I refuse to watch it, any part of it but I felt the sudden need to write a fix it fic so here we are. How I think Pay Up could have happened and I think I prefer my version to the show but maybe I'm biased. Feedback is loved and appreciated. **

**Wake Up Call**

It was beeping and voices that got her attention, that made her realise that something had changed and she tried to open her eyes, the task seeming to be harder than she remembered it being. There was too much light and no sooner had she managed to partially accomplish her goal she closed her eyes again. She heard herself moan, a quiet sound that came out rather pained and she realised something was very wrong. She forced her eyes to open again, the light not seeming so bad this time but it took a moment for her surroundings to turn clear enough for her to see.

She was in a hospital room; at least it looked like a hospital room. There were wires everywhere, a tube down her throat that she had to fight the urge to struggle against. The beeping had been the machine next to her bed, monitoring her and the voices were doctors and nurses passing by the door. Her mind raced, trying to figure out what was going on, why was she in the hospital?

The last thing she remembered was the diner, she'd been with the Dunbrook kid and she'd called Don... there was nothing after that and she felt herself starting to panic slightly. The beeping from the machine sped up, became more erratic and it must have caught someone's attention because the door opened. A nurse walked in, a soft smile on her face along with a look of surprise.

"It's nice to see you awake Detective Angell," the woman said. "The doctor is on his way."

Jess wanted to speak, tried to, but all she managed was a strangled noise that sounded nothing like her voice. A doctor arrived a moment later, the same soft smile on his face as he walked over to her and looked at her vitals.

"I think we can remove the tube, she'd breathing fine on her own," the doctor stated. Jess kept quiet, panicking silently as the doctor continued to check her stats and was soon join by another doctor that removed the tube from her throat and helped her to drink the water one of the nurses brought in for her.

"Don?" she managed to ask, the one word feeling harder to say than it should but she needed to ask, she needed to know where he was. The doctor looked confused, not recognising the name but a nurse put a hand on Jess's arm with a smile.

"We've notified Detective Flack that you're awake, he's on his way," she stated and Jess nodded. She felt an irrational urge to cry, she didn't understand what was happening.

"Do you know why you're here?" the doctor questioned and Jess shook her head. "You were shot, I don't have all the details but I was told you were with a witness in a case. You were at a diner when someone tried to kill the witness, you were hit in process."

Memories came back slowly and she nodded her head, closing her eyes and pushing back the urge to cry which seemed to only be getting stronger, where was Don?

The doctor continued talking, explaining her condition and she was only able to take half of it in but she got the important stuff. She knew she'd been shot, she knew it was a miracle she'd survived, she knew she'd been in a coma for two months and she knew that if the doctor kept talking to her that she wouldn't be able to stop herself from crying. He seemed to sense this because he stopped, told her he'd be back later to check on her and then left. The nurse once again rested a hand on her arm with a reassuring smile that did nothing to help Jess feel better.

* * *

Don rushed into the hospital, he'd feared the worst when the hospital had called and hadn't been able to believe it when they told him Jess was awake. He was glad he'd been sitting at his desk at the time because his legs certainly wouldn't have been able to support him if he'd been standing. He didn't say anything just stared at his desk for a few seconds and then gathered enough of himself together to walk to the locker room. Danny had been with him looking down right confused and then terrified when he'd followed Don to the lockers and watched his friend cry.

Don had been quick to tell him Jess was fine, that she was awake but he hadn't been able to say more than that. Danny had told him to get his things while he let the Captain know they were going to the hospital. He had gone back to his desk, grabbed his jacket and met Danny at the door. Danny had trusted him to drive so Don had sat in the passenger seat staring out the window and praying that this wasn't a mistake because if it was it would break him.

He all but ran down the corridor to Jess's room and looked through the doorway. She was laid on the bed, staring at the window looking lost and scared but her eyes were open, the tube down her throat was gone along with most of the other tubes and wires. He took a moment to pull himself together, to breathe because from the look on her face the last thing she needed was or him to break down in front of her. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Danny stood there with a relieved smile on his face.

"I'll go call the others and Jess's family, let them all know," he said and Don nodded as his friend left. He walked into the room, his footsteps catching Jess's attention and she tore her gaze from the window to him. She smiled slightly, not the smile he was used to from her but at this point he'd take anything. He forced himself to move over to her, sitting on the edge of the bed but scared to touch her.

"Hey," he said quietly and for a second she looked like she was going to cry.

"Hey," she breathed and reached a shaky hand for his. He took it and once he had hold of it he decided he wasn't letting go again anytime soon, security would have to drag him out of here before he left again. He kicked himself for not being here when she woke up, he should have been here but his shift didn't end until later that night. He'd been here for most of his off hours since he'd brought her in here. He'd slept here, ate here, watched the games here with Danny.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here..." he began but Jess shook her head.

"You're here now," she whispered and Don leaned down kissing her forehead and leaving his lips there for several seconds before he pulled back.

"Danny's calling your dad and then everyone at the lab," he told her, not knowing what else to say, scared he'd do or say the wrong thing because at that moment she looked fragile, too fragile and seeing her that way broke something in him. "They'll probably all be here before long."

"Detective Flack, I see you've come back," the nurse said as she entered the room. Joyce had been looking after Jess since she'd come out of surgery and had made a habit of trying to shoo Don out of the hospital to clean up and change, sometimes Don had needed the push because if he'd had his way he would have been glued to the chair beside Jess's bed for the last two months. "You're becoming part of the furnishing around here, I was thinking of suggesting redecorating the room around you so you'd fit in better," she continued turning her attention to Jess as she grabbed the chart from the end of the bed. "Do you know how much time he's spent in this hospital; I had to force him to go home and shower."

Jess smiled slightly and tried to pull Don's hand closer to her, she didn't seem to have the strength though so Don moved it for her. Jess frowned at her hands, looking even more upset and the nurse tapped a pen on her leg as she wrote in the file.

"Don't worry yourself, most of your strength will come back in the next day or so, you haven't used your body in two months, it will take some time to get everything going properly again," Joyce told her putting Jess's file back and leaving just as Danny came in.

"Hey Angell, you're looking a little better than you were yesterday," Danny commented as he moved to stand beside the bed. "I called your dad; he should be here in about twenty minutes along with the rest of your family. Mac said he'd keep everyone else at the lab until a little later, give you some time to settle but he'll be here with the rest of them tonight."

"Thanks," Jess said her voice still a whisper and Danny shrugged.

"Not a problem, it's just good to have you back with us," Danny stated "I'm gonna head back to the lab and let you two have some time before you started getting mobbed. I'll come back with the others tonight."

They watched him leave and were silent for a few moments. "How are you feeling?" Don questioned desperate for something to say but realising it was probably the most ridiculous thing he could have asked.

"I've been better," Jess told him and once again he thought she was going to cry. "I'm not so bad now; I was scared when I woke up. I didn't understand what was happening and..."

Her voice cracked halfway through and Don knew she had to have been terrified to be admitting to it so easily. He was surprised when his voice came out evenly. "And what?"

"You weren't here," she mumbled and Don felt guilty once again for having been at work when she woke up. "But its fine, I've been out for two months, you couldn't be here all the time," she added and took a deep, shaky breath to calm herself. "What I have missed?"

Don was grateful for the lifeline, something else to focus on and Don started telling her about everything that happened in the last two months. He told her about the Dunbrook case, the shooting at the bar and how Danny had only just gotten out of a wheel chair making sure not to panic or overwhelm her as he did so. He left out killing the guy that had shot her, how scared he'd been when she was in surgery and how he'd feared she wasn't going to wake up afterwards. She didn't need to know any of that now, that was for later, when she was better, stronger.

Her family soon arrived and Don stood up to let them through. Jess tightened her grip on his hand as much as she could in her condition, looking slightly panicked as though she thought he was leaving. He manoeuvred himself around the bed; taking hold of her other hand and sitting in the chair, close enough to keep hold of her but far enough to allow her family to have their time with her.

**Authors Note: So what do you guys think, a one shot or a should I continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you guys so much for all the amazing reviews, I've never had so many for one fic/chapter and it really made my day. So special thanks and lots of hugs to lily moonlight, tina, saturn567, terriberri23, new-york-babeee, afrozenheart412, Country_Girl23, falling into heaven, LacytheDemonicDuck and monkeytoes94. You guys are all amazing and so I give you chapter 2, hope you enjoy it. **

**Also I apologise for any mistakes, I just got a new laptop and I'm still getting used to the new keyboard so apologies in advance. **

* * *

Chapter 2

Don had been given a couple of days off to stay with Jess, the captain had been more than understanding over the last two months and Don would have to remember to thank him for it later. He'd barely left her side since she'd woken up, other than toilet breaks, a trip home to the shower and the brief times he'd left to let her family have the time they needed. Everyone from the lab had been there at some point yesterday and by the time everyone but him had left Jess had been a little overwhelmed. She'd fallen to sleep easily and Don had nodded off in the chair by her bedside only to be woken up by Joyce the next morning while the nurse was giving Jess her medication.

She seemed more relaxed than yesterday, a little more settled and he was pleased to see her looking just that little bit less fragile. The tubes and wires were gone, the last of them having been removed that morning. She was starting to look a little more like the Jess he was used to though he knew she was still far it. She was currently flicking through TV channels, mumbling something about crap television.

"There's nothing on," she finally gave up and put the remote down. "Think they'll let me out of here anytime soon?"

"No," was his blunt answer but he did sympathise with her. After the bombing that had landed him in here he'd been desperate to get out, to go home. She glared at him as she reached for the water beside her bed, struggling slightly but Don had already learned not to get it for her. Once she'd gotten enough of her strength back she'd given him an earful when he'd passed her the box of chocolates she'd been reaching for, claiming she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. He put it down to frustration; she didn't like not being able to do things for herself and now she was struggling with the basics. She managed to grab the glass and drink from it, stretching once again to put it back.

Don ran a hand through his hair as he sat back in his chair, it was a few seconds before he realised Jess was staring at him.

"You need to go home tonight," she stated her voice betraying the fact that she didn't want him to.

"No, I'm good," he told her and she shook her head.

"You've been here since I woke up Don, other than the hour you took to go get a shower and change this morning. You need a decent a decent night's sleep and you've got a far better chance of getting it if you go home and sleep in a bed."

"Not likely," he muttered and Jess reached for his hand.

"I'm not going to disappear if you go home and you're not working tomorrow so you can come right back in the morning. You can bring me breakfast too because I can't eat any more of that gloop they tried to tell me was food this morning," Jess told him and Don looked at her for several moments, considering the idea and not liking it. She was right though, he did need the sleep and he wouldn't have to be gone that long, six hours was plenty enough sleep for him.

"Alright, I'll go, but not until later," he said as he kissed the back of her hand. "And your dad should be here in about an hour so once he gets here I'll head down to your favourite sandwich shop and bring you back lunch."

"Sounds good," Jess replied quietly. "Can you pass me the chocolates Lindsay brought for me?" she asked and Don raised an eyebrow at her but got the chocolates for her anyway.

"Oh before I forget, Lindsay's gonna bring Lucy by this afternoon, just for a quick visit, she thought it might cheer you up," Don informed her and Jess smiled.

"It would," she said. "I bet she's got so big."

"She has but you'll see for yourself this afternoon," Don told her enjoying the first bit of excitement he'd seen from her since she'd woken up.

* * *

Leaving the hospital knowing he wouldn't be coming back until the following day was harder than he'd expected and he'd expected it to be very hard. It was so hard he had yet to manage to do it; he kept finding reasons not go yet, to put it off just a little while longer. He didn't want to go, he didn't like it and if he had his way he would be staying right where he was, unfortunately it seemed to be Jess getting her way on this occasion.

"I'm putting my foot down Don, or at least I would be if I could get up without falling and ruining the whole effect. You're leaving, go home, sleep, shower, eat, buy me breakfast and then you can come back, and don't think you can sleep for a couple of hours and then come back either, I don't want to see you for at least seven hours," she told him and held up a hand to cut off his protest. "That gives you enough time to drive, buy me breakfast, change and shower as well sleep and if I think you haven't done all of them I'll be sending you right back out."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Good," Jess replied, the stern look leaving her face. He knew she didn't want him to go any more than he did and it was only making it harder to actually go. He hovered in the room for a moment before Jess rolled her eyes. "Go Don."

"Alright, I'm going," he stated and leant over the bed to kiss her. It was light and quick and not nearly enough for him but that fragile look had yet to go away and it made him far too wary of hurting her, which he knew was irrational but he couldn't help it. "I'll see you in the morning."

She nodded her head and he swore if she looked any more teary eyed then he was planting his butt back in that chair and staying there, foot down or not. She gave him a small smile though and told him to go again; reluctantly he managed to drag himself out of the room not even daring to look back as he left. He was in the car by the time he was able to take a deep breath and convince himself he wasn't going to go back in.

He'd lost so much time with her, he'd thought he lost her a few times and wasted what time he'd already had. It had made him realise things, things he'd already known on some level and things he needed to tell her because she had a right to know and because it would have killed him if he'd lost her and she hadn't known. It had to wait though, he didn't want to tell her while she was still in the hospital, more or less stuck in her bed and resisting the urge to cry far more often than he liked.

Once she was out though he would tell her, he would tell her everything, this was his second chance, there was no way he was wasting it. He started the car and drove back to his apartment, throwing a microwave dinner into the microwave and heading though to his bedroom. He grabbed the black duffel bag from his closet and threw it on his bed, going through the things of Jess's that he had at his place so he could take some of them to her tomorrow, she'd probably feel a little better if she had some of her own things around her.

* * *

Despite being tired Jess had struggled to fall asleep but thankfully once she'd managed it she didn't wake up again until morning. A nurse had come in with her meds and left again telling her breakfast would be along shortly which Jess had turned down. She'd managed to get to the bathroom with a little help from the nurse and returned to her bed feeling pleased with herself because her legs had seemed far less shaky. She'd flicked through TV channels again leaving one on more for background noise than anything and instead grabbed one of the magazines Stella had brought for her. It seemed like forever before Don arrived almost exactly seven hours after he left.

"Hey," he said as he kissed her quickly and handed her the bag with a breakfast sandwich in it. She ate that while he put his black duffel bag on the end of her bed and started taking stuff out of it. "I know Stella and Lindsay bought you a lot of the stuff you needed but I brought your book that you left at my place, your shampoo, a bunch of other things that I found in my bathroom cabinet and some clothes."

"Good, I can get out of this hospital gown then," she said as she reached for her sweat pants that he was holding up. He gave them to her along with her baggy blue top and then pulled out his huge grey hoodie that she always wore when she cold at his place. She pulled it into her, it smelled like him, as well as it being big and cosy, it was the secret reason she loved to wear it. "Aren't you eating?" she asked surprised when he sat down in the chair beside her bed without food.

"I had mine on the way here, you didn't think it was going to just sit in the bag next to me did you?" he joked and she smiled and shook her head.

"Of course not, what was I thinking?" she questioned rhetorically as she finished the remainder of her sandwich and then tried to get out of the bed to change. Don moved to close the blinds on the window and door as she stood by herself, shaky but doing it alone. She leaned against the bed to pull on the sweat pants which was the hardest part and then changed into the top and hoodie before climbing back into the bed feeling very victorious. "That was hard work," she sighed.

"You're getting better though, you wouldn't have been able to do that yesterday," Don commented and she nodded her head. It was strange how being able to get changed without any help felt like such a big achievement.

"The nurse reckons I'll be strong enough to start physiotherapy tomorrow, nothing big but she thinks making a start will be a good idea," Jess told him and Don nodded.

"It'll be good to get you moving around again," he said as he looked over her.

"I'm fine Don," she told him quietly. "I might not be a hundred percent but I'm getting there."

"I know," he replied as he stood up and kissed her.

"And I'll be fine when you leave again tonight," she stated and almost had to laugh at the look on his face. "You're going home again, you have work in the morning and you need your sleep," she continued, as much as she didn't like the idea that she wouldn't see him all night and then all day she knew he had to leave. He couldn't be here all the time and besides, her brothers were planning on spending most of the day with her tomorrow, she had a feeling it was because they knew Don had to work but she hadn't questioned them.

"I could ask the Captain to give me a couple more days off," he suggested and she shook her head.

"Save them for when I get out of here."

TBC

**Next chapter: The road to recovery isn't quiet so easy. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note: I'm not completely sure about this chapter but I figured I'd kept you guys waiting long enough for it so here it is. Special thanks to terriberri23, Storywriter, lily moonlight, saturn567, afrozenheart412, writergirl99 and CSIRanvir for the great reviews.**

* * *

Chapter 3

There wasn't a single part of her body that didn't hurt, she hadn't even done that much, just used some metal bars to walk a few steps and stretched out the muscles that her body had forgotten were there. It was an unpleasant reminder of just how far she was from her usual self, how far she was from being fully fit again. She hated not being able to do things herself, hated that she needed help with such simple things as walking, that she was being taken back to her room in a wheelchair because she wasn't capable of walking it.

"Hey," she heard Lindsay say as she was wheeled into her room. She saw her friend standing up from the chair beside her bed with Lucy in her arms as the nurse helped Jess get up and back into the bed. "It's nice to see you out of the bed, I wasn't going to bring Lucy, I wasn't sure you'd been up to it again but I figured she could cheer you up."

"I'm always up for seeing Lucy, I still can't believe how big she's gotten," Jess told her sighing in relief when she was able to sink down into the bed and let her body relax. Lindsay handed Lucy over and Jess took her, smiling at the little girl who reached up to pull at her hair.

"She's growing up so quickly, I told Danny it won't be long before she's got all the boys running around after her instead of him doing it," Lindsay said with an amused smile. "I've never seen his face drop so fast, I had to reassure him I was kidding and there was still plenty of time left before that. She's not even walking and talking yet but I dread to think what he's going to be like when she hits the teen years."

"He's got time to adjust, maybe he won't be so bad," Jess suggested and laughed at the look Lindsay gave her. "Or maybe he will."

"Oh, Don wanted me to let you know he's going to be late," Lindsay told her. "He's stuck at work with a case; he didn't sound happy about it either."

"I can imagine," Jess told her. "How is everyone?"

"Missing you," Lindsay stated. "Mac's had to stop several plans for us all to descend on the hospital when we're supposed to be working," she told her and Jess laughed. "Everyone's doing okay though, Adam's been acting weird for a while now, me and Danny were talking about it the other day but when I asked him if everything was alright he told me it was fine."

"He was at the bar with you during the shooting right?" Jess questioned and winced at Lucy gave a harder pull to her hair. She disentangled the girl's hand from her hair as Lindsay nodded. "Yeah, everyone but Don was there, he was still here."

"Then maybe he got a little shook up by it, I know it's been a couple of months but maybe he just hasn't dealt with that," Jess suggested with a shrug that made her shoulders hurt.

"Well, other than that everyone's good, especially now that you're awake and Danny's out of his wheelchair, I think we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel now," Lindsay told her and reached for Lucy when the little girl pulled her hair again. "Sorry, she's been doing that to me and Stella too, she seems to have developed a fascination with long hair."

"It's alright," Jess replied. "She's just curious; she doesn't have long hair yet."

"Yeah but in the mean time I'm going to end up losing chunks of mine," Lindsay laughed.

* * *

Don arrived at Jess's room to find her in the bed talking to Lindsay who sat in the chair next to her with Lucy. He'd been grateful when Lindsay had offered to come and spend the afternoon with Jess when he'd realised he was going to be stuck at the precinct for longer than he'd hoped. Lindsay smiled as she saw him in the doorway and Jess turned around, greeting him with a smile of her own as he walked over and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"Did you get the guy?" Lindsay questioned and Don shook his head.

"No, there's just not enough evidence," he told her and she gave him a sympathetic smile as she looked down to her watch. "I should get going; it's a little passed Lucy's bed time."

"See you tomorrow then," Don said as she picked up Lucy and said bye to Jess. He waited until she was gone before he sat down in the chair she'd just vacated. "How was physiotherapy today?"

"It was hard," Jess admitted and Don waited for her to continue. "I don't think there's a single part of me that doesn't hurt. I hate not being able to do things; I had to come back to the room in a wheelchair because I couldn't make it walking. I hate it."

He felt his heart break for her, hearing her sounding almost defeated and so upset with herself for struggling with things was almost enough to break him. There was a second while he looked at her when he thought she might cry, his tough Jess looked like she was going to break down in front of him. It had him standing up and moving to her side quickly, sitting beside her on the bed so she could curl into his side and rest her head on his chest. It was the first time he'd been able to hold her since before the shooting, the first time he'd had her in his arms since he'd brought her in here fearing he was going to lose her.

"You're getting better Jess," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, he'd missed the feeling of holding her, he hadn't realised how much he needed it until it had almost been taken from him.

"I know," she said quietly and he tightened his arms around her. "It's just hard not being able to do things for myself."

"I know, but you'll get there, you've already come so far," he said planting a kiss in her hair. She nodded against his chest and he felt her take a deep breath and relax against him. After the rough day he'd had at work this was what he'd needed, to just be able to hold her like this. He settled back against the bed, content to stay there for as long as he could and when he heard Jess's breathing even out he decided just to let himself drop to sleep.

* * *

Lindsay stopped the car outside the apartment building and jumped out, getting Lucy out of her car seat and carrying her sleeping form into the building. She smiled her thanks to the man who held the door open for her as he was leaving and carried her up the stairs careful not to wake her. It had been a busy afternoon for her at the hospital and she rarely slept when she was around the team, she seemed to really love them all.

She managed to unlock the door and carry Lucy inside, closing the door behind her. Danny was sat on the couch flicking through the TV channels; he looked around when he saw them come in and jumped up from the couch to follow her through to Lucy's room.

"Everything alright?" he asked and she nodded as she put Lucy in the crib.

"Yeah, she fell asleep on the way back, she gets all excited when I take her to see Jess... or anyone else for that matter," Lindsay replied with a smile, making sure her daughter was settled in the crib before turning to follow Danny out of the room.

"How is Jess?" Danny questioned.

"She's getting better," Lindsay told him as the two of them sat down on the couch again. "It sounds like physio might have been hard for her but I suppose that's to be expected after everything that happened."

"It's not easy not being able to do things yourself," Danny stated nodding his head and Lindsay smiled and reached for him, running her fingers through his hair.

"I guess you'd know that better than any of us," she said quietly. "But you came through it and Jess is tough so I know she'll be able to do it too."

"She just needs to hang in there," Danny replied reaching up to take her hand in his and bringing it to lips to kiss the back of it. "We should get to bed; we both have to be in early tomorrow."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow at him and gave him the suggestive look she knew he wouldn't be able to resist, not that he resisted without it. Danny grinned and stood up, pulling Lindsay up with him and throwing her over his shoulders to go through to the bedroom.

* * *

It had only been a couple of days since her last session but Jess was being put through another one. She wanted the sessions, she really did, she knew she couldn't get better without them but she felt terrible, they only seemed to be highlighting for her how badly she was doing. She bit back a moan of pain as she used the metal bar to support her as she walked across the room, it seemed too far and it was only a few steps.

She finally made it to the end of the bar and she turned around looking for the wheelchair and instead being met by a zimmer frame. She raised an eyebrow at Sarah, her physiotherapist who just stood and stared silently at her waiting for her to accept it. She sighed and reached out for it, putting her weight onto it as she walked away from the metal bar, the wheels on the bottom making walking just a little bit easier.

"I know you probably don't like it but it'll help you to move around more and that's what you need to be doing if you want to get better," Sarah told her and she nodded her head half heartedly. She did want to get better, it was just so hard and she hated that everything in her body was hurting; surely she should have been better than this by now. "I think you've had enough for today, we'll walk back to your room with this and that'll be it for a few days, your body needs to rest for a while."

"That's fine," Jess answered as she concentrated on the steps she was taking, she didn't remember her room being so far away.

"You really are making excellent progress Jessica, I know it may not seem like it right now but you have come such a long way and you're doing very well," Sarah continued and Jess hummed her acknowledgement, continuing to walk to her room and half wishing for the wheelchair. She finally got there and Sarah told her to keep the zimmer frame for now and that they'd have another session in three days. She left then and Jess put the zimmer frame in the corner before making her way slowly to her bed and crawling under the sheets. She laid down, not wanting to move because it only made her body hurt even more than it already did.

She didn't know how long she laid there for but Don arrived eventually and she gave him a half smile as he walked in and kissed her forehead in his usual greeting. He tried to tell her he'd brought her some more things from home, some clean clothes, some new magazines but she only took in some of what he was saying.

"Jess," he said kneeling down in front of her where she was laying on her side on the bed. He brushed her hair out of her face and looked over her, clearly concerned but she couldn't bring herself to do anything about it. She was tired, she just wanted to sleep and pretend none of this was happening.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: I had planned to update this sooner but I've been really ill and haven't had the energy to write. I'm a little better now so here's the next chapter, I apologise for any mistakes or if it's not up to standard, I blame it entirely on being ill. Huge thanks to Saturn567, terriberri23, lilly moonlight, and afrozenheart412 for the great reviews. **

Chapter 4

Jess flicked through TV channels eventually resigning herself to the fact that she was stuck with daytime soaps to watch and put the remote back down. Her father laughed in the chair beside her, he knew how much she disliked daytime TV and even more how she disliked soaps, they were overly dramatic and more often than not miserable, she'd avoided them since she was a kid and her mother had been intent on watching them every day. She'd never understood how her mother could be so addicted to them but she'd insisted that she had to know if Rick was going to marry Sally or Jane or if Jane would run away with the best man and Sally would reveal she'd slept with his father and was now pregnant with his kid... or something along those lines.

"There's nothing else on," Jess defended as she looked at her father.

"Well, then don't watch it, we could talk instead," her father stated and from the sound of his voice she got the impression she might want to watch the soap instead.

"What about?" she asked warily.

"I don't know, how about Don, what's going on with you two?" he asked and she rolled her eyes.

"That was real subtle dad, aren't you supposed to beat around the bush for a while and ask a whole series of questions that are likely to lead you to the answer you want?" Jess questioned and her father laughed again.

"Since when have you known me beat around the bush, if I want to know something I'll ask," he stated and Jess shrugged.

"We've been seeing each other for almost a year, less than that if you don't include the two month coma," Jess told him.

"Since he was here every day during the two months, I'm going to include it," he told her and she gave him a half smile. "Is it serious?"

"Yeah," Jess replied after a moment, the two of them hadn't discussed what it was very often but they'd both made it clear that they cared a hell of a lot.

"You know dating someone you work with, especially as a cop isn't the easiest thing to do, relationships are hard work as it is and you've got a lot of added pressure on you and you could easily make mistakes at work that could cost lives or cases," he told her and she nodded her head, they'd thought about all of this before.

"We know that dad, we've talked about it and we know what we're getting into," she stated hoping that he would understand.

"And if it doesn't work?" he questioned. "How are you two going to go back to working together every day if your relationship falls apart?"

"Then we'll deal with it if and when it happens," she replied and he nodded his head seemingly accepting her answer.

"He seems like a good guy, I knew his father, great cop and from what I hear his kids proving to be twice that at least," his father said and Jess cocked her head to the side.

"So does that mean he gets your approval?" she asked and he nodded and smiled.

"If he makes you happy, that's all that matters to me."

* * *

Don left the precinct, phone to his ear and keys in hand as he headed for his car. His whole day and been long and frustrating, he was tired and maybe a little bit irritable but the suspect had deserved being snapped at several times, he'd probably killed someone after all and even if he hadn't, he was still a jerk who needed snapping at.

"_Everything is running but the labs a little snowed under this week, we won't have the results until tomorrow, did you get anything from Mills?" _Mac's voice questioned through the phone as Don reached his car, sliding into the driver's seat.

"About as well as you can imagine, he lawyered up before we could even tell him why we wanted to talk to him, kinda says something about his conscience really," Don replied, starting his car and leaning back against the seat. "He gave us nothing though, said he wasn't there, didn't know the vic, never heard of the club. He also didn't provide us with a good alibi, so there's something."

"_Well hopefully we'll find some evidence that catches him in a lie," Mac stated. "There's nothing else we can really do right now, you going to the hospital?"_

"Yeah, I'm about to head down there now," Don said.

"_Alright, give Angell my best."_

"Will do, talk to you tomorrow Mac," Don stated ending the call and tossing his phone onto the seat next to him as he drove out of the parking lot and toward the hospital. It was harder to find a parking spot than usual; it seemed everyone had decided to visit at the same time so after three circles through the car park he managed to slip into a place just before the guy behind him tried to steal it from him. He got out of the car and walked inside, Jess was laid down on the bed eating what looked to be her third pudding and watching some woman sob hysterically on the TV.

"What _are _you watching?" Don questioned as he walked in and dropped a quick kiss on her lips.

"I have no idea," she replied "But it was this or a documentary about rocks. As much as I hate soaps I've been forced to watch this thing all week so let me just find out who the father is cos after suffering through it all week I'm not going to miss the only interesting part of it."

"I'll just sit here quietly then," Don laughed as he pulled out the giant bag of MnMs he'd bought her on the way to work that morning and her attention instantly drifted from the TV to him.

"Now that's not fair," she stated and held her hand out. He gave them to her and sat back in the chair, allowing her to watch the last few minutes of her show. Laughing at the wide eyed look as the show ended with a cliff hanger.

"What?" she exclaimed. "No!"

"It's not that bad Jess," Don laughed as he saw the look of outrage on her face.

"I've been watching this thing all week Don, all week," she exclaimed. "And right when they're about to reveal who the father is they leave me on a cliff hanger, that means I have to endure another episode to find out!"

"I thought you hated soaps?" Don questioned and Jess turned to glare at him.

"I do!" she told him. "But I still want to know who the father is."

"Well, now you have something to look forward to," Don told her keeping his amusement to just a smile.

"When was I reduced to the highlight of my day being watching a soap?" Jess questioned sinking back into her pillows with the MnMs holding the bag out for Don to take some.

* * *

Stella walking to Mac's office and he took a moment to look up from his computer and greet her with his usual smile. He looked tired she noticed, it had been one case after another all week, one scene after another and even though things were slowing down a little now the evidence from all those scene still needed to be processed and since he was head of the lab, everything went through him at least once.

"Hey, the blood on the counter at the Williams scene was too degraded to get a DNA sample, we're still waiting on the blood on the door handle," she told him and he nodded his head with a sigh as he leaned back in his chair.

"I was expecting as much," he replied.

"I'm going down to the hospital to see Jess, did you need anything else before I go?" she questioned.

"No, there's nothing we can do until the rest of the results come in and that won't be until morning at the earliest," Mac told her and she nodded her head. "You can check in on Adam though, make sure he's going home. He's been trying to get information off a hard drive for the last few hours but he was the first one of us in this morning."

Stella froze for a second and then nodded her head. "Yeah, I'll check on him on the way out."

"Thanks," Mac replied.

"You should get out of here too, you need sleep as much as the rest of us," she told him.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just want to finish this up and then I'll head home," he stated and she gave him a disbelieving look.

"You'd better, if I find you still here in the morning I'll drag you home myself, I'll handcuff you to the bed if I have to," she warned him and he raised his eyebrow at her. She just smiled and left, heading down the corridor to where Adam was cursing at his computer.

"Does that help?" she questioned as she walked in and Adam jumped as he turned to her.

"Oh, hey, Stella, I didn't erm, I didn't hear you come in, was, was there something you needed?" he stuttered and Stella smiled.

"No Adam, relax," she told him. "Mac sent me to tell you to go home; you can finish this up tomorrow."

"Oh no, that's fine, I think I'm actually getting close to something," he replied. "It probably won't take me much longer now. I really just want to finish this up, then I'll go."

Stella cocked her head to the side feeling a sense of déjà vu. "You're spending too much time around Mac; he's rubbing off on you."

"Maybe," Adam replied looking down at his computer, up at the ceiling, at the floor, anywhere but at Stella and she sighed.

"Look Adam, it really doesn't have to be like this," she told him and he looked at her wide eyed and a little scared. "What almost happened, would have been a mistake, we were both upset and had a little too much to drink. I think another couple of drinks and neither of us would have had the sense not to go any further. It didn't happen though and we don't need to walk on egg shells around each other, we can just be friends, like we've always been."

Adam nodded his head. "Yeah, I would like that."

"Good," Stella smiled. "I gotta go, I'm heading to the hospital to see Jess, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," Adam said and Stella smiled again and left feeling a whole lot better than she had in weeks.

* * *

Jess smiled as Stella smacked Don across the arm for even suggesting that she might enjoy handcuffing Mac to the bed. She held back her own comment about it possibly being true and allowed Don to take the punishment for it alone. She gave her nurse a smile when she came in with her pain medication and she took it wordlessly, it didn't seem to help much but she figured she'd probably be worse off without it.

"So how is your physio going?" Stella questioned and Jess saw Don's head turn to her quickly.

"It's going fine," Jess replied somehow keeping her smile on her face despite the fact that it wasn't genuine anymore. She was sitting in a room with two detectives though and she knew neither of them was fooled by it. Stella gave her an odd look but let the subject drop and thankfully Don didn't bring it up either.

"So Sid is taking a vacation," Stella said changing the subject.

"Really?" Don questioned. "I can't imagine him being anywhere but autopsy, except maybe the occasional crime scene."

"Strangely enough, he has a life too," Stella stated.

"Where's he going?" Jess asked.

"He and his wife are off to Miami for a week next month, he said they need some time together just the two of them so they can do couple things and then he started going to his creepy place and Hawkes had to cut him off before he could get into any more details, I think I'm mentally scarred just from what I did get," Stella explained with a half serious laugh and Jess shuddered just at the thought of what details poor Stella had been subjected to.

"I think I'm scarred just from that," Don said with a disturbed and grossed out look on his face.

"Imagine my pain," Stella replied and then turned to Jess.

"So you being driven crazy by this place yet?" Stella questioned humorously.

"About ten minutes after I woke up," Jess told her with a laugh. "I was never good at being stuck in hospitals."

"Yeah, her dad was telling me the other day about when she was eight and she got sick, they took her into the hospital and she had to stay there for a few nights. On the second night she somehow managed to get out of the hospital unnoticed and made it around the block before her oldest brother found her and took her back," Don laughed and Jess glared at him.

"What did I tell you about sharing my childhood stories?" Jess questioned, she'd known when her father had started telling them that she was going to have to make him pay for it, him and her boyfriend.

"Don't worry Jess; I'm sure you'll get plenty of ammunition too," Stella told her. "And if you don't, I have some I can give you."

Jess stifled a yawn as she watched Don glare at Stella.

"Well I should get going," Stella stated obviously noticing Jess's fatigue.

"Yeah, and take him with you," Jess said gesturing to Don who looked ready to protest. "It's getting late Don; you have work tomorrow, go get some sleep."

Don sighed as Stella grabbed his arm. "Come on, you can walk me to my car."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," Don said dropping a kiss on Jess's forehead before he left with Stella and Jess turned onto her side and pulled the covers over her to sleep.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note: So the next chapter is here, it didn't turn out quite the way I expected to but my writing very rarely does. Special thanks to lily moonlight, afrozenheart412 and terriberri23 for the reviews. **

Chapter 5

Jess walked along the length of the room using the metal bar as support, she got a little further than usual before her body tired and she had to stop. Sarah came to stand next to her, giving Jess a few moments before telling her to start moving again. Jess did as instructed, planting one foot in front of the other and gritting her teeth against the pain it caused. She stopped again, breathless and tired, she hated this, she wanted to go back to her room.

"Keep going Jess," Sarah encouraged. "You're almost there; we'll make this the last one for today."

Jess sighed looking toward then wall that was only a few steps away but somehow seemed further. She forced herself the rest of the way, sitting down in the chair close by knowing she still had to manage the walk back to her room and sending a glare at the walking frame that was waiting for her by the door. She hated people seeing her with it but so far Danny, Don, Lindsay and Stella had all seen her try to get to the bathroom or come back from physio with it.

"You're doing well Jess," Sarah told her and Jess could hear the 'but' in her tone before she even said it. "But, you could be doing so much better; you just need to push yourself a little more. It hurts, I know that, and you're tired and you feel like crap but you need to push yourself in these sessions because that's what will get you out of the hospital."

Jess didn't say anything, she was trying, she here wasn't she? She was in pain and she'd still done everything she'd been asked to, what more could she do? Sarah sighed and helped her to stand back up, a nurse brought the walking frame over to her and Jess leaned most of her weight on it as she and Sarah walked down the corridor to her room. Sarah left her at the door and Jess used the walker to get all the way to the bed before she let it go and climbed under the sheets.

She didn't want to move, even breathing seemed to be hurting and once again she found herself wishing it all away. Flashbacks from the diner came to mind, the things she could have done differently, how she could have stopped it. She hadn't been the only person hurt that day, a couple of innocent bystanders had been caught in the crossfire and she knew she should have been able to stop it. Maybe if she hadn't been on the phone talking to Don, hadn't been distracted then she would have seen it coming, could have prevented this.

It sounded silly, she knew if it had been anyone else at the diner that day that she'd tell them it wasn't their fault, they couldn't have done anything. She knew all the things she would say if it had been any of the other lying here but that didn't make the thoughts go away. It didn't stop the nagging doubt in her mind that told her should have done something, should have been able to stop this.

She reached for the TV remote, pain shooting through her ribs as she pushed herself forward to get to it. She closed her hand around it and dropped back against the pillow, taking a moment to breathe before she reached up and turned on the TV. She flicked through the channels, soap, soap, crime drama, cheesy movie, documentary.

"Soap it is then," she muttered to herself as she put the remote back down beside her and tried to understand why two men were throwing punches at each other while several women looked on hysterically.

* * *

Don walked into the precinct a little late and found Danny sat at his desk waiting for him. The man was looking through his paperwork, playing with a paperweight and kicking the leg of the desk absently.

"Danny, quit routing through my stuff and get out my chair," Don ordered as he dropped the brown paper bag that had his breakfast in it on the corner of his desk. Danny jumped up from the chair like a child caught drawing on the hallway wall with his crayons, strangely he could picture Danny doing that as a kid.

"You're late," Danny pointed out.

"Sorry, had to stop and get breakfast on the way in, my apartment is lacking in food right now," Don told him. He needed to go grocery shopping at some point, he hadn't been for weeks now and he was almost at the point now where he was living on cereal, occasionally he had milk and bread if he had the chance to go the store.

"I'm not surprised, you're only ever really go there to sleep at the moment," Danny stated. "You'll have to get some food in though once Jess is out of the hospital otherwise you'll have nothing to feed her."

"Oh crap, Jess," Don said dropping into his chair. "I forgot to bring her stuff for the hospital. It doesn't matter; I'll pick it up on my lunch hour."

"I get off before you do," Danny stated sympathetically. "I could pick it up and take it to her if you want."

"No it's fine," Don told him knowing he must really look like everything was catching up on him if Danny was volunteering to take Jess's clean clothes to the hospital for him. "So is there a reason you're here?"

"Yeah, I thought you might be interested to know the DNA on the murder weapon came back to Mill's wife," Danny told him and Don raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, it turns out 'Miss Perfect Housewife' is not so perfect after all, she's got priors for breaking and entering and assault. Uniforms tried to pick her up but she seems to have disappeared."

"Typical," Don said, sometimes he swore criminals had a sixth sense for when they'd been caught out, they were always around right up until you got something on them and then they disappeared.

"We've got some people out looking for her, checking out all of her hangouts, hopefully they'll find her before long," Danny continued.

"Good, cos I've kind of had enough of this case," Don told him. They'd been working it for over a week now and every time they got something new, some new evidence a new direction; it always seemed to lead them to a dead end. There were four bodies, they had absolutely nothing on Mill's who still remained their best suspect and now the wife looked to be involved too.

"You're not the only one, me and Montana had to cancel dinner the other night, it was supposed to be our first proper night out since Lucy was born and we wound up having take out at the lab," Danny told him with a sigh as the doors were opened and couple of uniforms dragged a loud and protesting Mrs Mills in. "I guess they found her, I'll go call Mac."

Don watched Danny leave and looked at the bag with his breakfast in it, putting it away in the drawer. He didn't think he'd be getting back to it anytime soon.

* * *

Mac stepped out of the elevator, greeted by the sight of his busy lab. A lot of his people were working overtime to handle the extra workload they seemed have that week, even a few of the nightshift were in. He barely made it halfway to his office before Stella called for him and he stopped waiting for her to catch up.

"Hey, you get anything from Mill's wife?" she asked and Mac shook his head.

"Nothing we can use," he replied, keeping his frustration to himself. "She claims her prints were all over the murder weapon because it was hers. The kitchen knives are all hers, she handles them all the time."

"We didn't find anything matching that knife in the house, it's part of a set but not the same as the ones they have," Stella said as she tapped the palm of her hand with the file she was holding, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "I suppose that's not proof that the knife didn't belong to her though. I hate to give you more bad news but the hair found on the second victim is a dead end as well. It belongs to Alan Clarke, a construction worker with priors for assault. He claims to have been at a party across town at the time of the first murders and we already spoke to several of the people that were there and at least seven can place him at the party."

"So that rules him out as a suspect, at least for the first murders, what about the second?" Mac stated as he took the file Stella handed to him.

"In his apartment, the two women he was with confirm that," Stella explained. "They assured me the three of them were awake well passed the time of the murder."

"So, again, that rules him out," Mac stated.

"And once again leaves us with Mill's as our best suspect," Stella added. "Mill's who so far is proving untouchable."

"Alright," Mac began feeling his frustration with this case rise up a notch. He was already getting pressure from above to close this case and while he never allowed that pressure to interfere with cases the constant ringing of his cell phone was starting to get annoying. "We need to go back through everything again, put it all together and see what we can come up with. Where's Lindsay?"

"She's working the Jodi Calder case with Hawkes," Stella told him. "I saw her about ten minute ago in trace cursing at some blue goo."

Mac smiled. "Tell her to finish up what she's doing and meet us in layout; a fresh set of eyes might be helpful," he told her and Stella nodded

"You got it," she replied heading over to trace while simultaneously pulling her phone from her pocket to call Danny. Mac watched her go, smiling to himself; he wasn't entirely sure how the lab would function properly without her.

He walked into his office just as his cell phone started ringing, time for another lecture in how to do his job. "Taylor."

* * *

The first thing he noticed when he walked into the room was that she was upset about something again. She was staring blankly at the wall, ignoring the documentary that was playing on the TV and absently picking at the corner of the bed sheet. She didn't even notice him until he was almost standing right next to the bed and she attempted to give him a smile that only solidified his belief that she was once again upset. He knew she'd had physio earlier that day and she always came back from her it more down than when she had left.

"Hey, how was work?" Jess questioned immediately jumping into conversation before he could ask about physio.

"It was work," he told her. "Captain says hi by the way."

Jess smiled again and nodded, turning to the TV and frowning at it as though she'd only just noticed what was on it. "Well, this is boring."

"I brought you some things," Don told her. "There's not much, a couple of new magazines, chocolates, clean clothes, I'll take you're other ones back with me, throw them in with my laundry." _Once he got chance to do it. _

"You don't have to do that, I can do it when I get home, just dump it all back at my place," she stated and he shook his head.

"Nah, it's fine, I need to do my own anyway," he replied as he took her things out of the bag and handed them to her, leaving the clothes folded on a nearby table. "So, how was physio?" he dared to ask, watching her face fall and her eyes dart back to the spot on the wall she'd been staring at when he got there.

"Hard work," she told him, her usual answer, followed by her usual tactic of changing the subject. "Did you get anything on that Mill's guy yet?"

"No, guy walks around like a ghost, doesn't leave any evidence of himself anywhere, he's really starting to annoy Mac and Danny," Don told her with narrowed eyes. "What did Sarah say?"

"You're convinced Mill's is your guy though?" Jess questioned and Don narrowed his eyes at her further which she rolled her own eyes at. "She said I'm doing fine, answer the question."

"Yeah, I'm convinced it's him, he's playing with us, he knows we have nothing on him," Don said and decided to let the subject of physio drop for now, she was obviously going to dodge all his questions until she got annoyed with him and refused to answer any more. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her, maybe when she was a little better they could talk about it properly. He picked the bag up from the floor and pulled the last thing out of it. "I did bring you one more thing."

Jess's eyes widened. "A portable DVD player."

"A loan from my sister who wants it back in one piece but I brought you a bunch of movies from my place and Sam threw a few in there for you too so now you don't have to watch anymore soaps," Don explained pleased when she smiled, genuinely, and took the stack of DVDs he'd brought to look through them. "There is a catch," Don continued and she looked back at him. "Sam wants you around for dinner, wants to meet you."

"Does she realise I'm the cop that nearly arrested her?" Jess questioned and Don laughed.

"No, I thought I'd keep that a surprise," he told her.

"How is she doing?" Jess questioned.

"A lot better, she finally told me the truth about the meetings a few weeks before you woke up. She had no idea what was going on with me or why I suddenly stopped calling and was never at home, I may have failed to mention to my family that my girlfriend was in a coma. She thought I was mad at her again and finally managed to catch me at home. We talked and she told me about the meetings and I told her about you," Don explained. "She's very excited to meet you."

"Won't she be surprised," Jess stated. "I'm glad she's doing better and it must be nice not having to pretend you don't know anymore."

"Yeah it is," Don replied smiling.

They picked out one of the movies and Don sat next to her on the bed, arm around her as they watched it. Jess fell asleep a few minutes before the end and Don looked at the clock realising how late it was, it had already been late when he got there. He jumped down from the bed, putting the DVD player away in a cupboard and kissing Jess's forehead, running his hand over her hair a few times before he left.

He was barely out of the hospital parking lot when his cell phone rang, Mac's name coming up on the caller ID.

"Flack."

"_Mill's is dead," _Mac's voice informed him and Don sighed.

"Where?" he questioned turning the car around as Mac gave him the address and all thoughts of getting any decent sleep that night were pushed out of his head. This was going to be another long night.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors Note: Next chapter here, I hope you guys enjoy it. Thanks so much to terriberri23, afrozenheart412 and lily moonlight for the reviews. **

Chapter 6

"You look tired," Mac stated as he and Don stepped out of the elevator and made their way to autopsy. They'd both ended up working through the night along with Danny and it didn't look like any of them would be getting to sleep any time soon either. Sid had come into work early to do the autopsy on Mills, Danny was still processing evidence from the scene and Don had spent the night tracking down all the people that might have wanted Mills dead, it had been a long list.

"Mac, Detective Flack, I assume you're here about your victim," Sid greeted them both. "You know, it may be nice once in a while to see you come down here just for a chat with me."

"Sid, this is a morgue," Don told him as though that should explain everything.

"Fair point," Sid conceded as he gestured them over to the table Mills was laid on. "You're just in time; I've only just finished the post. You were right about Cause of Death, blunt force trauma to the head but if that hadn't killed him the stab wound certainly would have."

"Somebody wanted to make sure he died," Mac stated looking over the body; with the blood and clothes gone he could see the full extent of the damage done to his suspect. Cuts and bruises, a couple of stab wounds, it looked like someone may have tried to strangle him at some point as well and of course the wound to the head that had killed him.

Sid handed them a sealed beaker. "His stomach contents, the level of digestion suggests he ate within half an hour of his death which I put somewhere between 8pm and midnight."

"Alright, thanks Sid," Mac said as he turned to leave with the stomach contents, maybe they could tell him where Mills was before he died. He looked at Don again, he really did look tired, more tired than the rest of them. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," Don replied, an automatic response.

"The truth," Mac requested as they both stepped back into the elevator.

Don sighed. "I'm just tired, between the case and running backwards and forwards from the hospital I'm not getting a huge amount of sleep. There's something up with Jess as well, she won't talk to me about it and I'm losing sleep over that now too," he admitted and Mac nodded understandingly.

"She just woke up from a two month coma after being shot," Mac reminded him, as if he needed the reminder. "It'd be more worrying if she was completely fine. You've just gotta be there for her, when she's ready to talk she will but running yourself into the ground isn't going to help anybody so try to get some sleep tonight."

"Easier said than done Mac," Don replied and once again Mac nodded.

"I know, but try anyway," he told him as the doors opened and the two of them stepped out into the busy lab heading in the direction they'd left Danny.

* * *

It was hurting.

Every time she took a step pain shot through her body, every time she lifted the weights pain shot through her body, every time she stretched her muscles pain shot through her body. It hurt, it all hurt, she was tired, she didn't want to be in pain anymore, she didn't want to be doing any of this anymore. She wanted to go back to her room, she wanted to sleep, she wanted to lay there until everything stopped hurting.

"Keep going Jessica, just a few more times," Sarah told her and Jess lifted the weight above her head. It wasn't particularly heavy, but it sent a stab of pain from her shoulder to the rest of her body and she dropped her arm back down again. "And another one."

She did it again, the pain making her drop her arm again. She was fed up with this, she was fed up with the hospital, fed up with physio, at that moment she couldn't even see how this was helping her, it was just hurting.

"Come on Jessica, again," Sarah pushed and Jess dropped the weight on the floor, enough was enough. "Jess, what are you doing?"

"I'm going back to my room," Jess replied, grabbing the walker and heading over to the wheelchair nearby. She couldn't even walk back to her room, everything hurt too much, she was too tired.

"Your session isn't finished today," Sarah told her firmly but Jess shook her head.

"It is now," she replied angrily. "I can't do anymore."

"Yes you can," Sarah stated. "You can do this, you've done more than this in other sessions, you're perfectly capable of doing it, you just have to push yourself a little more."

"I am pushing myself, and I've pushed myself as far as I can go today now I want to go back to my room," Jess yelled which got herself looks from the other patients and staff in the room but she couldn't bring herself to care. "I want to go back to my room," she repeated hoping that Sarah would just let her go. It wasn't fair, none of this was fair, why did this have to happen to her, why did any of this have to happen at all?

"Alright fine, if that's what you want I'll take you back to your room," Sarah gave in but something in her voice told Jess that she wasn't done yet. She didn't care; if it got her back to her room, back to her bed then she didn't care what else the physiotherapist had in store for her. Sarah wheeled her back to her room instead of making her use the walker she was supposed to be using to get the strength back in her legs. She stopped the chair in the doorway and thanked the nurse that had brought the walker along with them. She placed the walker in front of Jess and gave her an expectant look.

"I can't," Jess replied, attempting to wheel the chair toward the bed but Sarah blocked the wheel with her foot.

"Yes you can, it's only a few steps and since you didn't walk back to your room you can walk back to the bed," she told her and Jess sighed grabbing for the walker and pulling herself out of the chair, leaning all of her weight onto it and wincing at the pain that shot through her shoulder at the move. "See, you can do it," Sarah said as Jess took the first steps toward the bed. "You just have to push yourself."

"Stop saying that," Jess shouted, stopping and turned around. "Stop saying that like I'm not trying to, I'm doing the best I can."

"No, you're not, if you were you'd still be in there but you quit, you're giving up," Sarah replied, her voice raised slightly but not out of anger, just a need to get her point across and Jess continued toward the bed. "I've been doing this job for years and I've seen every kind of patient, I've seen patients who should recover not get better because they quit and I've seen patients who were told there was no chance to recover get better because they wouldn't give in. You're quitting, you're giving up and you'll never get better if you don't start trying again."

"Just go," Jess yelled at her as she got into the bed. "Just leave me alone."

"Think about it Jessica," Sarah said before she left and Jess followed her with her eyes only just realising Don was standing in the doorway. She sighed, wondering how much of that exchange he'd heard, the look on his face told her he'd heard enough.

"What's going on?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she replied, when had she stopped being able to talk to him.

"It's not nothing Jess, you've been acting off for a while now, you won't talk about physio and now this, what's going on with you?" he questioned and Jess felt her anger rise up again and she irrationally picked Don as its target.

"Just drop it Don," she shouted at him and he shook his head.

"Not this time," he replied. "I've done nothing but drop it and look where it's gotten you. What is going on with you Jess?"

"Just get out," Jess yelled and she watched the hurt look on Don's face, she couldn't stop herself though. "Just go, I don't want you here," she continued, and Don hesitated. "Leave," she shouted again and he did, turning to leave, putting the bag he'd brought with him down on the chair and walking out. She stared at the door until long after he'd gone, feeling a tear on her cheek as she turned away, curling up in the bed and closing her eyes, wishing the world away.

* * *

Don looked across the room at Jess's still empty desk, the paperwork had piled up but it wasn't anywhere near as much as it would usually be. Other detectives, himself included, had stopped there whenever they had some free time and filled in some of the work, whatever they could whenever they could. Even when she had been in a coma, they'd all chipped in with the work, expecting her to wake up and not wanting her to come back only to have to find her desk amongst all the files and papers. She was a fighter, and they'd all clung to the belief that she would pull through.

What he was seeing now was new to him. Jess had never quit, she'd never given up on anything. Even the cases that had long since gone cold, that she'd never managed to close; she would still go back to the files, read through them, run some names and prints to see if anything new came up and sometimes it had actually paid off. She was a fighter but now... now she was giving up and it hurt him to see her that way. He dropped his head into his hands, his eyes were sore from the lack of sleep he'd gotten once again last night, he had dozed off at some point in the early hours of the morning and gotten a few hours of restless sleep before he'd woken back up again.

"Don," Danny's voice said and Don looked up, seeing his friend stood right in front of his desk, a sympathetic look on his face. "You alright?"

"I'm fine, what's up?" Don replied and Danny gave him a disbelieving look as he gestured behind him to where Mill's wife was being dragging in again, protesting all the way. "Turns out she and Mill's had dinner right before he died, we found the murder weapon and once again her prints are all over it."

"What's her excuse this time?" he questioned, watching the woman as she was dragged through to be questioned.

"Don't know yet, Mac and Stella are doing the questioning, I thought you might wanna come through to observation with me," Danny told him and Don had to think about it before he nodded yes and followed Danny through to the observation room. Through the window he could see the woman being sat down in the chair and told to stay there as Mac and Stella walked into the room, files in their hands. "So are you gonna tell me what's up?"

"I didn't sleep well last night," Don replied as he watched Mac and Stella start the interrogation like a tag team.

"Jess?" Danny questioned.

"Yeah," Don replied sighing, looking down and then at Danny. "She's given up; I got to the hospital last night and found her yelling at her physiotherapist. I asked her what was going on and she yelled at me to get out, that she didn't want me there," Don explained, hearing his own voice crack with emotion as he talked, it was all catching up to him now.

"It's hard," Danny told him. "When your body can't do things, basic things that you've always done, all of a sudden it's all a challenge for you."

Don nodded. "I know, I just wish I could help her, I wish she would let me help her."

"She just needs time, you know her, she's stubborn and she's a fighter, she can come through this," Danny told him. Don didn't reply, he just looked through the window again as Mill's wife dodged all of the questions Mac and Stella were throwing at her, coming up with lies and excuses like a pro, just like her husband had.

* * *

Danny walked into the hospital and headed to Jess's room, she was laid back in the bed, DVD player on her lap as she watched one of the movies Don had brought for her. There was both a walker and wheelchair in the room, the last time he'd been there it had just been the walker and he knew Don had been right, she was giving up, going backwards.

"Hey Jess," Danny greeted as he entered the room; she looked up from the movie and gave him a small smile, a false one.

"Hey Danny, what are you doing here, don't you have work?" she questioned.

"Yeah, I'm on my lunch break, thought I'd stop by and see you since I haven't had much of a chance to," he replied casually as though he hadn't come here with a purpose. She gave him another false smile and nodded her head, pausing the movie and setting aside the DVD player.

"How's work, you're on the Mill's case right, you get anything on him yet?" she questioned.

"He's dead, turned up in alleyway two nights ago, looks like the wife might be involved but she's almost as clever as her husband at not getting caught," Danny told her sitting in the chair beside her bed.

"I'm sure you'll get him," Jess replied.

"So, how's physio going?" he questioned conversationally, Jess's face fell at the mention of it but she quickly covered it up.

"It's fine, hard work," she told him and he decided just to come right out with it.

"That's not what I'm hearing," he stated and she turned to him with angry eyes. "The way I hear it you're giving up."

"I'm not," she told him through gritted teeth and Danny raised an eyebrow at her.

"You could probably have been out of here by now Jess," he told her. "You've got to push yourself."

"I wish everyone would stop telling me that, like I don't already know it, like I'm not trying," she replied angrily.

Danny sat forward in his chair. "I know it's hard, you're body suddenly can't do all these things that you've always been able to do. I know there are times you want to quit, times when you feel like there's just no point in bothering. I know Jess, I was just there and it took a couple of kicks up my ass from Lindsay and Hawkes to get me out of that wheelchair. Lindsay doesn't know this, but I'd given up, I stopped trying because I didn't see me ever getting out of this chair, she knows I came close to quitting but she doesn't know that I actually stopped trying."

"I'm sorry," Jess replied and Danny doubted she even knew why she was apologising.

"Its fine, I'm out of the chair now because even though I gave up, they didn't, they got me going again and I did everything I could to push myself, to get my legs back," Danny told her. "So I know, I know it's hard, I know it hurts and I know you feel like lying in this bed wishing it all away because it all seems impossible but that won't help you. Your body is perfectly capable of healing from this but if you give up you'll never be able to do the things you want to."

Jess nodded, tears in her eyes that he knew she would wait until he was gone to shed but he felt like he'd gotten through to her, at least he hoped he had. "You're right," she said as if in answer to his thoughts.

"And don't push Don away, he's a mess today," Danny told her and he could see the guilt on her face, regret over her words last night. "He really cares about you Jess, really cares, and he's bending over backwards to be here for you, to do everything he can for you. He's hardly getting any sleep because he spends all his time working this case, running back and forth for you and worrying about everything. He's managing though; the only thing that's gonna break him is if you shut him out."

She nodded again. "Thanks Danny."

"Any time," he replied picking up the bag he'd brought in with him. "Now, a little bird, named Flack, mentioned that this was your favourite sandwich," he told her, handing her the paper bag and she smiled as she took it from him.

* * *

Jess's room was empty and Don turned around to ask one of the nurses where she was when he spotted her coming down the corridor with her walker and Sarah walking alongside her. The two of them were talking as Jess slowly made her way down the corridor, one step at a time until she saw Don and smiled. Sarah took Jess into the room, leaving her stood beside the bed with the walker and looking very pleased.

"You did very well, I'll need to talk to your doctor first but a couple more sessions like that and I think you should be able to go home, rest up tomorrow and I'll see you on Thursday," Sarah told her smiling to Don as she left. He looked at Jess as she leant herself back against the bed, a small wince of pain flashing across her face as she looked at him.

"Come here," she said reaching her hand out to him and he took it, stepping closer to her and she leaned up to kiss him. She reached her arm around his neck, pulling him closer and keeping him there as she deepened the kiss and Don couldn't help but respond to her. It was the first time in months he'd been able to kiss her properly, really kiss her and he realised how much he'd missed it, how much he needed it.

She pulled back from him, resting her forehead against his. "I'm not going to break if you touch me, I'm going to be fine," she told him and Don closed his eyes kissing her again, the relief running through him was almost too much for his composure to handle. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, I didn't mean it."

"I know," Don replied.

"Why don't we get up on this bed and you can watch a movie with me?" Jess suggested and Don nodded letting go of her long enough for her to get into the bed, lying next to her and grabbing the DVD player from the bedside table. Jess picked out the movie and settled against his side to watch it. Don caught the first few minutes before he drifted off to sleep.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Authors Note: I'm having a rather productive weekend as far as fandom is concerned lol, so here's the next chapter. Extra special thanks and hugs to saturn567, Is-Brea-LiomCSI-NY, afrozenheart412, terriberri23 and lily moonlight for all the great reviews. **

Chapter 7

Jess stuffed the last of her clothes into the bag Don had brought for her and realised with some annoyance that she now couldn't close it. She pulled at the zipper, wincing at the stab of pain that went through her shoulder at the force of it. She hit the bag in frustration, a feeling that wasn't improved by the chuckling that came from behind her. Don appeared next to her, taking the bag and re-organising a few things at the top of it before forcing the zipper closed.

"Thank you," Jess said quietly, glaring at the uncooperative bag as Don picked it up for her, slinging the strap over his shoulder.

"You know, if you hadn't just stuffed everything in there it might have been easier to close," he stated leaning down to kiss her quickly.

"I was being quick, not tidy," Jess replied. "The faster I get out of here the better. I'm sure they're going to come chasing down the corridor after me to tell me they changed their minds. Just so you know, if they do that we're making a run for it."

"You can't run," Don pointed out and Jess narrowed her eyes at him. She might not be able to run much but she'd take the pain if it got her out of here.

"Watch me," she said as someone else walked into the room.

"You have everything you need?" Sarah questioned and Jess nodded.

"Medication is already in the bag, the walker is by the door, I'm good to go," Jess told her and Sarah nodded her head.

"Don't forget, you have another session on Friday, we'll assess how you're doing being out of the hospital. I want you to try to move around some, use the walker as much as you need but get your body doing everyday things again. Don't push it though, I don't want to be hearing any tales of you chasing a burglar down a fire escape, that's what the boyfriend is for," Sarah explained with a smile and Jess nodded.

"Go to the bathroom by myself but let Don chase criminals around, got it," Jess summed up.

"Take it easy and I'll see you on Friday, we'll have you back to work before you know it," Sarah said as she left and Jess turned to Don.

"Let's get out of here before they change their minds," she stated grabbing the walker and using it to walk along the corridor beside Don. "You know I hate hospitals right?"

"No, I'd never have guessed," Don replied sarcastically as they left the building and Jess immediately spotted his car nearby. He'd told her he'd gotten their early to make sure he got a parking space close by so she wouldn't need to walk far. She'd called him that morning as soon as soon as the doctor had told her she could be released as long as she stayed with someone who could help her out for a while. Her parents had offered her a room back at their place but she didn't feel like moving to New Jersey for the next couple of weeks.

Don put her bag in the trunk, folding up her walker and putting that in there too as Jess got herself in the car. It felt good to be out of the hospital already, she'd needed to get out of there at this point, for her own sanity. Don slid into the car beside her, kissing her cheek before he started the car and drove them away. When they got to his place they left her things in the car and she held onto Don as they made their way up the stairs, his arm around her waist supporting most of her weight. They stopped to let other people pass them knowing it would take them some time to reach his floor but Don showed nothing but patience, had done through this whole thing.

Lindsay was in the kitchen when they arrived and she smiled when she saw the two of them making their way in. She took the large black duffel bag off the couch so Jess could sit down and it was more than a relief, the stairs had been hard but at least she'd made it up them.

"I raided your place Jess," Lindsay told her with a smile. "I brought some of your things over, mostly just your clothes, I know you already had some here but Don said you'd probably need some more."

"Thanks," Jess said getting herself comfortable on the couch.

"Alright, I gotta get to work, I'll see you both later," Lindsay said taking her leave and Don followed her to the door, thanking her again as she left.

"I'll make us something to eat," Don said and Jess shook her head.

"Come and sit with me," she said and smiled when he immediately changed direction, dropping onto the couch next to her and allowing her to curl into his side, his arms going around her. "Better."

* * *

Don had to wonder why even when presented with all the evidence some people still attempted to lie there way out of situations, as if their determination would somehow erase the evidence. Jerry Bakeman had obvious connections to Mill's wife, intimate connections evidenced in a video tape found in Mill's house. Despite being shown the video tape the man still denied knowing Mill's wife, claiming the image was fuzzy and it wasn't him in the video. He sat back in the chair, looking smug as though he actually believed he had won something.

"So what happened Jerry?" Don questioned. "Mill's find out you were seeing his wife?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Detective," Jerry stated with a nonchalance that was beginning to get on Don's nerves. "I never met the guy, or his wife and I definitely didn't kill him."

"We've got a witness that puts you and the wife together in central park two days before Mill's was killed," Mac told him.

"Guy must have been mistaken, got me mixed up with someone else," Jerry countered still looking smug.

"What I don't understand," Don continued. "Is where this fits in with the murder of Thomas Adele?"

"Hey, I had nothing to do with that," Jerry shouted sitting forward in his chair and looking a little more rattled than he had done since they'd brought him in. Don took a small amount of pleasure out of breaking the smug facade.

"A little adamant aren't we?" Don questioned with a raised eyebrow and Jerry leaned back in his seat, the smug look coming back to his face.

"You know what, I don't think I want to talk to you anymore, I want a lawyer," he stated and Don sighed inwardly as he and Mac were forced to leave the room until a lawyer could be brought in for him. This case had been sitting on his desk for too long now and every time they got something new it seemed to lead to either a dead end or another calm, smug suspect, expert in avoiding getting caught out.

"I'll see about that lawyer," Mac stated walking away and Don headed over to his desk, sitting in his chair with a sigh and grabbing his cell phone. It took some time before there was an answer on the other end of the line but he'd known he would have to wait for it anyway.

"_Hello,"_ Jess's voice came over the line and Don smiled.

"Hey babe, it's me," he replied. "Just checking in."

"_Why, are you afraid I might have tried to tackle that mess you call a kitchen all by myself?"_ she questioned, humour lacing her tone.

"I told you to leave that until I got home and in my defence, I haven't been in my apartment a whole lot recently, I've had no time for cleaning," he stated and heard her laugh at the other end of the line.

"_Relax, I haven't touched it,"_ she told him.

"Good, you alright?" he asked.

"_Other than the fact that despite my escape from the hospital I'm still being driven mad by daytime television, I'm fine,"_ Jess replied. _"I resorted to your DVD collection an hour ago."_

"What are you watching?" he questioned.

"_Gone in sixty seconds,"_ she told him with a laugh.

"I should have known," Don replied. It was a good movie but he couldn't understand how she could watch it so often, he'd seen it more times since he started seeing her than he had in the entire time before that put together. "How about I pick up something new for you to watch on the way home, we can order in?"

"_Sounds good,"_ Jess replied and Don felt better already just for having heard her voice. He looked up to see Mac coming his way with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Alright Jess, I gotta get back to work, I'll see you when I get home," he told her, hanging up the phone just as Mac reached him. "You don't have good news for me do you?"

"Mill's wife boarded a plane to Mexico three hours ago," he stated. "Uniforms stopped by her place, looks like she took everything with her. I don't think she's planning to come back."

"That's great," Don stated sarcastically. "Alright, maybe we can use this against Bakeman."

"His attorney is on the way, she should be here in about twenty minutes," Mac told him and Don nodded, standing up.

"Right, well then I'm off to grab some MnMs from the vending machine, want anything?" Don questioned and Mac smiled, shaking his head as Don left.

* * *

Lindsay knocked on the door of Don's apartment waiting patiently for it to be answered and smiling when Jess opened it. The detective was looking a lot better than when she'd first gotten out of the hospital although she was still using the walker. She held up the brown paper bag she'd brought with her.

"I bring lunch," she announced and Jess smiled, stepping back.

"Well then by all means come in," she said closing the door behind Lindsay.

"I was on my lunch break and Danny's still working so I figured I'd drop by," Lindsay told her waiting for Jess to sit back on the couch with a heavy sigh before moving the walker to the side and joining her.

"Where's Lucy?" Jess questioned.

"Danny's mom takes care of her during the day," Lindsay replied handing Jess the sandwich she'd brought for her. "How are you doing, bored yet?"

"Don has a lot of DVD's," Jess replied with a smile. "He's also got a couple of old Hockey games that I've been able to watch so it's not so bad, far better than being in the hospital."

"How's the physio going?" Lindsay questioned, wincing internally as she remembered Danny mentioning it had become a sore subject for her but to her surprise Jess just shrugged.

"It's still hard work and I hurt like hell when I get home but I'm getting there. Sarah wants me to start weaning myself off the walker, I'll be glad when I can get rid of it completely," Jess explained and Lindsay nodded smiling.

"Sounds like you're doing well then. We'll all be glad when you're back at work; it's really not the same without you. Stella and I have to keep the boys in line all by ourselves," she laughed.

"I'm sure you're both doing fine but it will be nice when I can get back to work, although I dread to think what the paperwork on my desk looks like," Jess stated and Lindsay smiled again, remembering the numerous times she'd been at the precinct and seen one of the other detectives filling something or other out for her. She'd even picked up a report or two herself and filled out what details she could.

"Not as bad as you think," Lindsay said. "Everyone has been pitching in to do some of it for you, it's not much but it has prevented your desk from being lost amongst papers and files."

"I'll have to remember to thank everybody when I get back," Jess said looking a little amazed.

"I think having you back will be thanks enough," Lindsay told her seriously and Jess nodded silently. "So Adam has a date," Lindsay stated changing the suspect.

Jess smiled. "With who?"

"I don't know, he's been very quiet about it. Danny noticed he was acting weird this morning and interrogated that much out of him," Lindsay replied. "All he said was she was pretty and smart."

"Well good for him, whoever she is, she better be good to him," Jess said.

"Yeah, or she's going to have the entire team after her," Lindsay laughed.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

**Authors Note: This is so much more fun to write with Jess now firmly on the road to recovery. Thanks to terriberri23, Storywriter, lily moonlight, afrozenheart412 and saturn562 for the reviews, you guys are all awesome. **

Chapter 8

Teresa Mill's had been stupid enough to come back into the country. She'd wanted to get more of her deceased husband's expensive belongings to sell and add to the small fortune she'd been amassing. A uniform that had been involved in the case has spotted her walking through central park and had brought her in, once again protesting, the woman didn't know the meaning of going quietly. Don had agreed with Mac's plan to play her and Bakeman against each other, ensuring that they both saw each other being led into interrogation rooms. Mac and Stella were in with Bakeman, doing the same dance that he and Danny were doing with Teresa.

"Think of it as a game, you've already proven to be good at those," Danny stated. "First one to talk, wins."

"I'm not telling you anything," Teresa stated. "You have nothing on me, or on Jerry."

"Is that what you think?" Don asked. "Ask yourself how we even know about your affair with Jerry, how we know that two days prior to your husband being killed the two of you were enjoying a nice day out in central park."

Don gave her a meaningful look, letting her read into it and come to her own conclusions. "Jerry told... he wouldn't have told you."

"Then how do we know?" Don questioned and she opened and closed her mouth several times.

"Whoever talks first wins," Danny repeated. "And if he beats you to it, he gets a deal and you get nothing."

"But I didn't kill anyone," she protested looking a little panicked. "I didn't kill Adele or my husband."

"If that's true then tell us who did," Danny stated. Teresa looked between the two detectives, the glass of the one way mirror, the door and then back at Danny and Don.

"My husband, he killed Adele," she stated. "I... I hired Adele to find all of my husband's hidden assets so that when I filed for divorce I'd be able to take everything I could and Jake wouldn't be able to keep anything from me. My husband found out I was seeing Jerry, or at least he suspected, he followed me to a meeting with Adele and overheard everything. They started fighting and Jake pulled out a knife, stabbed Adele, he killed him."

"Why were your prints on the knife?" Danny asked.

"I panicked, I pulled the knife out and gave it to Jake to hide, I guess he didn't do a very good job though," she told them.

"Why not just call the cops, he would have been arrested, you could have had your divorce and never had to think about him again, why help him cover up the crime?" Don asked her and she shrugged.

"I told you, I panicked," she replied.

"What about your husband, who killed him?" Danny questioned.

"You didn't seem to be getting anywhere with Adele and Jake said that your case was already going cold, that you had nothing on either of us. I invited him to dinner, to celebrate and to talk about things. It turned into an argument and he told me I was never getting a thing from him. I called Jerry and told him, he said the only way we were going to get the money was if Jake was killed and everything he owned would go to me. He told me where to lead him and that he'd meet me there," Teresa explained biting her lip nervously.

"And you did?" Don questioned and she nodded.

"Yeah, Jerry was waiting for us like he said he would be. He killed Jake, took his money and his watch so it would look like a robbery," she said looking down at the table. Don slid paper across the table toward her, dropping a pen on top of it.

"Write down everything you just told us," he instructed and she looked at him hesitantly but nodded and started writing. Danny left the room to inform Mac they had a confession and Don waited while Teresa finished before having her taken away in cuffs. Mac and Stella were just coming out of their own interrogation, a loud and angry Jerry Bakeman being dragged away.

"Well that was a tough one," Don stated as Stella's and Danny's pagers went off at the same time.

"And that's our other case," Stella said with a sigh, the two of them leaving.

"How's Jess doing?" Mac asked Don as the two of them headed toward his desk.

"Better," Don replied. "She's more or less off the walker now, we've still got it around for when she over does it but she hardly uses it at all. I think she's just glad to be able to do stuff on her own now, she doesn't like needing help."

"That's good, we'll all be glad when she's back at work," Mac stated and Don laughed.

"So will she, her and daytime television don't get along very well," he stated.

* * *

Danny left Adam and Stella discussing the case, he was supposed to be picking Lucy up from his parent's house. Normally they'd have no problem keeping her while Danny and Lindsay got stuck at work but they were scheduled to be on a plane to Florida in a few hours so he had little choice but to go and get her.

"You picking Lucy up?" Lindsay questioned as she caught up to him at the elevator.

"Yeah, I'm just on my way now, where are you going?" he asked her.

"Got called to another crime scene, apparently there's a connection to my case," she told him with a shrug. She glanced back at the lab he'd just come from, seeing Stella and Adam laughing about something as Mac walked in waving a file around. "Adam seems better."

"Yeah, whatever was bothering him has obviously worked itself out," Danny replied as the two of them stepped into the elevator.

"That or he's just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, like the rest of us. You're back on your feet; Jess is out of the hospital and well on her way to getting better. Don isn't walking around like the living dead anymore. Things are getting back to normal," Lindsay said leaning back against the wall of the elevator looking more relaxed than Danny had seen her look in months, since Jess's shooting.

"It was a crazy few months, even by our standards," Danny agreed. "I think we'll all be glad when Jess is back at work and everything really is back to normal."

The elevator doors opened and the two of them stepped out, heading toward their cars. "You bringing Lucy here or taking her home?"

"I'm gonna have to bring her here for a little while, I already spoke to Mac about it but you know he usually doesn't mind," Danny told her and she nodded, stopping as she realised they were going to have to go their separate ways to their cars now. "I'll see you later."

"See you," she said, leaning up to kiss him quickly and he watched her head for her car for a moment before going to his, getting in and making the drive to his parents house. They already had Lucy ready to go when he arrived; his mother was running around taking care of last minute details before they left. His father was making faces at Lucy and telling his wife he would do what she was asking him and then going back to playing with his granddaughter.

"This vacation has got your mother running around like a headless chicken," his father told him as he put Lucy in her car seat.

"Headless chickens run around with no actual purpose, I'm running around trying to get everything together before we leave," his mother said coming into the room, carrying her purse. "Hello dear," she greeted Danny with a kiss and then kissed Lucy goodbye. "Are you sure you're going to be alright while we're gone, what are you going to do with Lucy?"

"Mom, you're going to be gone for a week, we'll be fine. I have a day off, Lindsay has a day off and the rest of the time we have a babysitter," Danny told her. "If all else fails, Mac has no problem with us taking her into work. Now would you calm down, vacations are supposed to be relaxing, not stressful."

"I just worry dear," she told him. "Are you sure Lucy is alright at the lab, all those chemicals around and the kinds of things she must be exposed to in that place, all those people investigating crimes."

"Lucy doesn't go anywhere near any chemicals, we don't take her into those labs, she's usually in the break room and it's not like we go and show her crime scene photos to get her take on them. She's fine mom, everyone there loves her," Danny reassured his mother. "Now we gotta go, Lucy and I have some tool marks to analyse."

"Danny Messer," his mother chided.

"That was a joke mom," Danny replied, kissing her cheek and hugging his father before grabbing Lucy's car seat and heading for the door. "You two have a good time; I'll see you when you get back."

Danny left before his mother could fuss anymore, securing Lucy's car seat in the back of the car before getting in and driving back to the labs. He loved his mother but she could drive him crazy at times, he had to wonder how his father stayed sane around her so much.

* * *

Don had to navigate his way around Jess as he tried to cook dinner for them, she had insisted on helping him and had succeeded only in making it more difficult for him. He'd seen her bite back a laugh as he'd nearly tripped over her and when he'd burnt his finger on the pan because he'd been too busy looking at her. She rarely helped him cook, he was usually grateful for that too because she couldn't cook, not anything that required more than throwing on a oven tray or in the microwave for a set amount of time before eating it.

"Jess, would you go sit down," he said as he shimmied passed her to get to the vegetables he'd been chopping.

"No, I'm helping," Jess replied and he sighed.

"You're more of a hindrance than a help Jess, even when you're fully fit," he told her and she narrowed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him, continuing with her task of stirring the food. Don left her to it, knowing better than to argue with her when she'd made up her mind about something.

"How was physio today?" he questioned. He'd noticed when he got home that although she'd been moving stiffly and was obviously hurting, it wasn't as bad as it had been previously.

"It was alright, I hurt like hell though," she admitted and he smiled. It didn't seem like that long ago he'd barely been able to get two words out of her about physio without her getting upset over it. Now she would freely admit that it was hard and it hurt, to him at least, which he took as a huge sign of her recovering emotionally as well as physically.

"Which is another reason for you to go and sit down," he told her and she threw a glare at him over her shoulder. "I think I've done more than enough sitting around doing nothing, I'm not good at sitting still."

"I know you're not," he replied.

"I told the hospital they could have their walker back too, I haven't used it once this week, in fact I'm not entirely sure where it is," Jess laughed as she looked around her to see if she could spot it. He grabbed her around the waist and turned her to face him, kissing her before she had a chance to protest or question him. He was getting his old Jess back, something that had seemed unlikely not so long ago.

"What was that for?" Jess questioned when they eventually pulled apart and he rested his forehead against hers.

"It's just good to see you smiling again," he told her and she gave him another smile, kissing him again. "I love you," he said, the first time he'd said it, at least while she was conscious, though he'd wanted nothing more than to tell her from the moment she woke up.

"I love you too," she replied after a moment and once again kissed him, her arms going around his neck to pull him close, she hadn't been able to do that before. "Your food is burning," she mumbled against his lips and Don cursed under his breath as he let go of her and turned back to his food.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors Note: Next chapter is here at last, all but two of my college assignments are in now so I should have a lot more free time for fandom coming up, I hope. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me through my terrible updating schedule and special thanks to; terriberri23, lily moonlight, Storywriter, afrozenheart412 and CSI4lyfNCIS13 for the reviews on the previous chapter!**

Chapter 9

Jess walked up the stairs using the railing and Danny for support. He'd offered to pick her up from physio that day to save her from catching a cab and she hadn't put up much of a protest. She was recovering well, the walker had been returned to the hospital and she found herself able to more or less go about her day without too much pain or exhaustion. It was times like this though, when she'd pushed herself a little too far that she was reminded she wasn't back to normal yet, and wouldn't be for a while.

She grabbed her keys from her pocket, she had yet to move back to her own apartment and aside from the occasional visit to pick up more of her things she hadn't spent much time there since she'd woken up. She knew she was going to have to go back there eventually but if she was honest with herself, she kinda liked her current living arrangements. They weren't ready for this to be permanent yet though, but she hoped that maybe they weren't far off. Both she and Don had been in this relationship for the long run, they would never have started it if they hadn't been serious about it but her being shot and the coma that had followed had showed them both exactly how they felt.

"You're doing a lot better," Danny commented as Jess finally opened the door and walked into the apartment without his support. She managed to make it to the couch before she collapsed, breathing heavily and doing her best to ignore the stabbing pain that was demanding her attention.

"Still tiring out easily though," she replied and Danny nodded.

"That's to be expected though, it'll get better," he told her, giving her a judging and contemplative look. "Where are your painkillers?"

Jess gave him a half smile. "Am I that obvious?"

"Only to those who know you," Danny told her.

"In the bathroom cabinet," she stated and he disappeared in that direction, returning moments later with her painkillers and a glass of water which she took gratefully. "So what am I missing?"

"Not much," Danny shrugged. "We're having an unusually quiet week. Mac and Lindsay are working a robbery, the rest of us are working a murder in central park, apparently the majority of the criminal population are taking a week off. I have a feeling though that it's going to turn out to be the calm before the storm."

"Well, maybe I'll be back before the storm hits," Jess stated with a sigh, she missed work, she'd never been one for sitting around.

"Jess..." Danny began but she cut him off.

"I know, I'm nowhere near ready for chasing criminals around the city, I was hoping maybe the captain would let me come back and sit behind a desk soon," she told him and at his raised eyebrow she continued. "Yes, me behind a desk, I'll go crazy but not as crazy as I'm going stuck here all day every day."

"Just make sure you're ready before you come back," Danny told her glancing at his watch. "I have to get back to work, you gonna be alright?"

"I think I can manage to sit here and watch TV for a few hours until Don comes back," Jess laughed and Danny nodded and left. She picked up the TV remote and started flicking though the channels, she purposely avoided the soaps, she'd managed to put an end to her addiction to them and didn't want to get dragged into another ridiculously dramatic storyline that she would end up wanting to see the end of. There was an old black and white movie on so she settled for that, she'd watched the end of it, watch a DVD and by then Don would be due back.

* * *

Don leaned against the doorway of the bedroom watching as Jess pulled her boots on. She sat up once she'd completed the task, unaware of his presence, she sighed tiredly. He was still debating whether or not this was a good idea, the look of exhaustion on her face wasn't helping but he knew she needed this, she needed to get out of the apartment for something other than physical therapy.

"Hey," he said walking into the room and she looked up at him and smiled. He'd stopped asking her if she was alright unless she looked ready to keel over, he knew the question had been starting to annoy her. "You ready to go?"

She pushed herself up from the bed, wincing only slightly at the action. "Yeah, just need to get my jacket."

Don grabbed the jacket hanging form the door handle. "This one?"

"That one," Jess confirmed taking it from him and slipping it on. Don wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him.

"You'll tell me if you get too tired?" he questioned and she gave him a raised eyebrow and a look of patience that seemed endless but he knew had its limits.

"I think I can manage walking from here to the car and then from the car into the restaurant," Jess told him. "But yes, I will tell you if I get too tired."

Don smiled and kissed her, letting her go and following her out of the apartment grabbing his car keys along the way. The stairs had probably been the hardest part for her and he knew getting back up them later was going to be a challenge but she'd managed it many times before and after physio. The restaurant was nice, it had opened while Jess had still been in the hospital and Danny had brought Lindsay here shortly after its opening, he'd had nothing but good things to say about the place.

"You're quiet," Jess stated after they'd ordered their food. "Other than checking up on me you've barely spoken since you got home."

"Just been a rough day, that's all," he told her and she cocked her head to the side.

"Bad case?" she questioned and he looked at her a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, couple of kids killed outside their school," Don said and Jess nodded in understanding, kids always got to them, it was the type of case that got to most detectives. "Not sure who killed them yet but my money would be on their teacher."

"Their teacher?" Jess questioned.

"Yeah, apparently she had some kind of feud with their father, a pretty nasty one by all accounts. There was an affair, an accusation of abuse when the father chose to stay with his wife and ended it. He was getting his kinds transferred to another school so they could cut all ties with her completely, they were due to start their new school next week," Don explained, this case was going to stick with him for a while, he was sure.

Jess shook her head. "Can you imagine sending your kids to school and then not getting them back? You're supposed to be able to trust the people that teach your kids, that spend so long with them during the day."

"We've got DNA from the scene, one of the boys bit their attacker and Mac is working on a warrant for the teacher's DNA. Hopefully we'll have that by morning and we can put her away, she'll never be allowed near another kid," Don stated and for once it might actually be that easy. She'd been angry and it had made her sloppy.

They fell silent as their food arrived and Jess changed the subject to a new TV show she'd discovered earlier that day and he allowed himself to forget about the case for a while.

* * *

Stella and Lindsay had both booked the afternoon off work; the guys had covered their shifts to make sure neither of them was called in. They all needed this, a chance to unwind after the insanity of recent months and there was no better way to do that than a girl's night. Normally they would hit the clubs for a few hours, dance and drink the night away before passing out at one of their apartments and waking the next morning to a hangover. Jess still wasn't quite up for that and she wasn't allowed to drink anything alcoholic yet so they'd opted instead for a girl's night in at Don's place.

Don had been kicked out of his own apartment for the night, he was staying at Danny's and Jess did feel slightly bad for that but he hadn't seemed to mind and her protest had been over ruled by Stella and Lindsay. So they'd gotten in some sodas, ordered more pizza than any of them would actually be able to eat and rented a bunch of movies. In an uncharacteristic girly twist there were makeovers, painting toenails and some online shopping they were all going to regret. Stella and Lindsay had dubbed it her 'congratulations, you're conscious' party.

"So what's it been like?" Stella questioned with a grin. "Living with Don?"

"Nothing like what you're imagining I'm sure," Jess replied and Stella raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, you have no idea the kinds of things I'm imagining," Stella told her and Lindsay nearly choked on the soda she was drinking.

"Stella Bonasera, I am injured," Jess chastised, laughing as she did so and trying not to blush. She was fairly certain they'd all had way too much sugar over the last six hours and the fact that it was just after midnight and she wasn't feeling tired yet said something about the caffeine and sugar that had to be running through her system.

"Then why are you so red?" Lindsay questioned and Jess stuck her tongue out at the pair of them.

"Seriously though Jess," Stella began. "It's good to see you laughing again; it's good to see you getting back on your feet again."

"Any idea when you'll be coming back to work?" Lindsay asked and Jess shrugged.

"Hopefully soon, I've already spoken to the captain; he says he'll let me back on desk duty when I'm ready. I'll have to pass with the shrink first but he's all for having me back at the precinct, I think he might have missed me," Jess smiled. "I've been getting out of the apartment more, I'm not tiring nearly as quickly and the pain is manageable now. So hopefully I'll be back in the next few weeks, even if it is just at a desk."

"When do you have your psych eval, do you know yet?" Stella questioned.

"End of next week," Jess told them, if she was honest she was a little nervous about it but she knew she was on the way to recovery, both physically and mentally, she had a good support system in place between Don, her family and her friends and was aware of what she could handle and what she couldn't. She was pretty sure the department psychologist would want to see her for a few sessions but she saw no reason why she would be kept off desk duty.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Lindsay assured her, "especially if we pump this much sugar into you beforehand."

Lindsay looked at the TV screen. "Does anyone know what's going on in this movie?"

"Not a clue," Jess replied laughing.

"Maybe we should start it again," Stella suggested.

"No, just put the next one on," Lindsay said, "it can't be that good if none of us were paying any attention. Stella nodded and crawled across the floor to the DVD player, grabbing the next DVD on the pile and exchanging it with the one that been playing.

* * *

He hadn't seen Jess much over the last few days despite the fact that she was currently living with him and he'd found he'd missed her. He hadn't been away from her if he could help it since she woke up, since before that if he was honest. The last few days had been busy though, he'd been working two huge cases simultaneously, Jess had her girl's night in the middle of it all and he'd been trying to fend off his sister. Sam was still determined to meet Jess, still not yet realising that she was the detective that almost arrested her. Don had no problem with it; he wanted Jess to meet his family but not yet, not until she was really back on her feet.

It was late at night as he walked into his apartment, all the lights were off and he guessed Jess had gone to bed hours ago. He locked the door behind him and silently made his way to the bedroom where Jess was sleeping, curled up amongst his sheets wearing yet another of his favourite shirts. He got changed in silence, crawling into the bed next to her and laying on his side to face her.

He was somewhat concerned that he had missed her so much in just the last few days and it wasn't as though he hadn't seen her at all but catching glimpses of her sleeping between his shifts just wasn't enough. He'd gotten too used to having her around, to coming home to her, to falling asleep next to her every night and waking up to her on a morning. They hadn't talked about it but they were almost at the point where she could move back to her own apartment, she rarely needed his assistance with basic things anymore and she didn't need someone constantly monitoring her.

"Hey," she whispered sleepily, her eyes half opening. "What time is it?"

"About 1am," he told her and she shuffled closer to him on the bed, lifting her head slightly so he could wrap an around her before she laid down on his chest.

"You keep working this late and you'll be the one stuck in the apartment all day needing taking care of," she said quietly and Don smiled tightening his arm around her.

"Things should settle down now, and I have tomorrow off so we can sleep in all morning and then go out somewhere in the afternoon if you want to," he told her and felt her nod her head against his chest.

"By the way," Jess began and he could hear the smile in her voice. "Your sister called me today, actually she called the apartment but she knew I'd be here and you'd be at work."

"Persistent, scheming little..." Don began but was cut off by Jess.

"Hey, be nice," she interrupted. "She's your little sister."

"Doesn't make her any less of a pain in the ass, I'm gonna have to start beating her off with a stick," Don replied. "You didn't tell her you're the detective that nearly arrested her right?"

"No, I didn't spoil your fun, it was a very brief conversation, mostly she just wanted to see how I was doing," Jess replied laughing as she looked up at him. "You know I was asleep when you came in right? Now I'm wide awake and it's your fault."

He did feel slightly bad about that. "I guess I'll have to make it up to you," he replied, leaning down to kiss her.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

**Authors Note: So this is the penultimate chapter, next one will sadly be the last. Thanks to conche, Everyone-Loves-A-Canadian-Girl, terriberri23, Runner043, afrozenheart412, DreamerChild88 and Storywriter for the reviews, you guys are all super awesome!**

Chapter 10

When she'd gotten up that morning she hadn't been able to believe how quickly time had gone since she'd booked her psych eval. She'd booked it a week ago and since then time had flown by. Then she'd been hit with the nerves and despite Don's assurances that she wasn't going to say something to screw it up she hadn't even been able to look at her breakfast for a good twenty minutes. Don had taken the morning off so he could drop her off for her appointment and pick her up again afterwards. He'd made her eat a slice of toast in the car and then handed her a soda when they arrived, telling her Lindsay and Stella had instructed him to give her sugar before the appointment. She'd laughed as she remembered their conversation on their girl's night in and had left Don to wonder why it was funny.

He'd offered to stay with her until she was called in but she'd insisted she would be fine and she'd call him as soon as she got out. He'd kissed her quickly and then left, he was going to the diner down the street to eat and work on the cross word puzzle Jess had challenged him to complete without help last week when he'd laughed at her doing them during dinner.

"Detective Angell?" a woman questioned and Jess nodded, standing from the seat she'd been waiting on and shaking the woman's outstretched hand. "I'm Dr Katie Silvers, why don't you come in and we can get started?"

Jess followed her and took a seat on the couch as Katie grabbed a small note book and pen from her desk and sat down on the chair next to her. She was younger than Jess had been expecting, new to the department but she'd heard one of the guys who'd had to see her after he'd fired his weapon at a seventeen year old boy who'd been holding his sister at gun point. He'd had nothing but good things to say about the young therapist. She made small talk for a few minutes and it seemed so innocent Jess was almost fooled into relaxing.

"Alright Jessica, I've had a brief read through your file, why don't we start with you telling me what happened a few months ago?" Katie questioned and Jess nodded.

"I was shot while escorting Conner Dunbrook, we stopped at a diner for breakfast and a bunch of guys with guns crashed into the place and I was hit," Jess summed up, memories from that day coming back more painfully than she'd been expecting.

"What happened then, after you were hit?" Katie questioned and Jess took a deep breath, pushing back emotions she didn't want to be dealing with.

"The police arrived pretty quickly and I was taken to the hospital," Jess stated, she knew she was getting cagey now but she hadn't expected her feelings about that day to still be so raw.

"You weren't taken in an ambulance, Detective Flack rushed you there, why didn't he wait for the paramedics?" Katie questioned, finding an alternate route to the answer she wanted and for a moment Jess decided to hate her because she hadn't been feeling this bad about it before she'd come in here.

"There wasn't time to wait for the paramedics, I was bleeding out," Jess told her knowing the woman already knew that.

"Detective Flack got you to the hospital and you were briefly pronounced dead, isn't that correct?" Katie asked and Jess nodded, clasping her hands together in her lap as she leaned forward on the couch.

"My heart stopped whilst I was on the table, they struggled to get it going again," Jess explained and Katie smiled and nodded as she wrote something down.

"You being here is something of a miracle then," she stated looking back at Jess who didn't respond, just waited for the next question. "What happened after they got your heart started again?"

"Why am I telling you all this, you already know it?" Jess questioned.

"Because you need to say it all for yourself," Katie told her. "To come to terms with it you need to put it all out there and deal with it, not push it to the back of your mind to fester because one day it'll sneak up on you."

"I slipped into a coma, for three months," Jess told her.

"How did you feel when you woke up?"

"Scared, confused, I didn't understand what was happening," Jess replied, thinking back to those first few minutes of consciousness when she hadn't known what was going on or why she was in the state she was. All she'd understood was that she was in pain and she was scared, all she'd wanted was Don, for him to come and help her because there was nothing that made her feel safer than him, even if she hadn't understood that at the time. "One of the nurses explained everything to me and my family were called."

"How did you feel when you were told what happened, that you'd been shot, pronounced dead briefly, in a coma for months?" Katie asked her and Jess sighed, the questions were getting repetitive but if she could just make it through this session she'd be back to work in no time.

"Upset, angry, disappointed, scared," Jess listed off.

"What were you angry at?"

"The people that shot me," Jess replied and Katie wrote something down again, she couldn't see what it was which she really didn't like, it felt like knowing someone was whispering about you behind your back but not able to hear what they were saying.

"What else?"

The question threw Jess slightly, who else would she be angry at? "The Dunbrooks, I guess. If it hadn't been for them I wouldn't have been there, I wouldn't have been shot."

"What else?"

Jess thought for a moment, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times. "Nothing, that's it."

"That's not true, you're angry at someone else, who?"

"No one, that's it, who else would I be angry at?" Jess questioned, not understanding the line of questioning.

"You said you felt disappointed when you found out what happened, that's not an emotion you would usually feel about someone you don't know shooting you. Why were you disappointed Jessica?" Katie asked her and Jess shook her head, not knowing the right answer. "You do know, you just don't want to say it out loud, why were you disappointed, who else are you angry at?"

"No one," Jess said, her voice rising slightly, she was getting frustrated.

"Who else are you angry at?" Katie pushed.

"I don't know," Jess replied her voice rising a little more.

"You do know, who else are you angry at Jessica?" Katie questioned, her voice rising as well but it was still calm, lacking the frustration and the anger than was in Jess's. "Who else are you angry at?"

"Me," Jess shouted, not realising she'd said it until the word was out of her mouth. She blinked back tears as she realised what Katie had been trying to get at and sank back against the couch. "I'm angry at me."

Katie nodded. "Why?"

"I shouldn't have let it happen, I was distracted, on the phone, if I hadn't been I might have seen them coming, done something about it. I should have been better but I wasn't and I got myself shot," Jess told her, remembering the thoughts that gone through her head back when she'd still been in the hospital, thoughts she'd forgotten about.

"You think you could have prevented it?" Katie asker her.

"Yes."

The rest of the session was much easier after than but Jess didn't know if she felt better or worse when she left. She and Katie talked through what she could have done differently on the day but Jess hadn't been able to definitively say it could have worked out any different. They'd talked more about it, then about the nightmares she still had on occasion, about Don and her support system and about her physio. Then they'd moved on to talk about her return to work and what it would involve, what it would mean.

She called Don as she walked out of the building, taking a deep breath of fresh air as she hung up, trying to sooth her rattled nerves. It had been harder than Jess had been expecting and she had a feeling Katie was going push her even more next session but maybe that would be the worst of it, she hoped it would be. Don came walking up the street to meet her and she gave him a tired smile as he reached her.

"How'd it go?" he e questioned and she shrugged.

"She's going to let me get back to work, restricted duty, and she wants to see me once a week from now until, and I quote 'I say otherwise', but restricted duty is better than no duty," Jess explained and Don smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they started walking down the street.

"You look like you've been through the wars in there," he told her, concern in his voice as he looked at her.

"She brought up some issues I wasn't quite ready for and the ones I was prepared for were a little tougher than I'd expected," Jess admitted, she didn't want to go into detail about what had been said in there and she knew Don wouldn't push, still, she felt he deserved something.

"You're alright though?" he asked her and she nodded and leaned into his side.

"Just tired... and hungry," she replied.

"I'm not surprised, all you ate this morning was a slice of toast and don't think I didn't see you throw part of that in the trash when we got out of the car," he told her and she smiled, she'd been too nervous too eat. "I've got a couple of hours before I have to be at the precinct, let's go get something to eat and then I'll take you home."

"Didn't you eat at the diner?" Jess questioned and he shook his head.

"Nah, I knew you'd be hungry when you got out so I just got a coffee and did the crossword, I've nearly finished it by the way," he told her tightening an arm around her shoulders as they headed back to the diner.

* * *

Jess was excited, it was something she hadn't been in a while, even her escape from the hospital hadn't felt this good. She was going back to work, granted it was just to sit behind a desk and she was only allowed to be there for a couple of hours but the captain had finally taken enough pity on her to let her come back for a few short shifts. She pulled on her boots as she heard a knock at the door and went to answer it.

"Hey," she greeted and Danny gave her a smile.

"Hey, yourself, ready to get back to work?" Danny asked her. He'd offered to come and pick her up since Don had gotten caught up in a case, interviewing college girls that were probably connected to a murder in their dorms. He'd called her an hour ago to let her know that Danny would be giving her a ride to the precinct instead and he'd apologised six times in less than three minutes. He was pretty upset that he wasn't going to be there for her first day back, that he wasn't taking her in but she'd told him he could find plenty of ways to make up for it she was sure.

"Just about, let me grab my jacket," she replied and walked through to the bedroom. She felt a twinge of pain in her shoulder as she reached up to grab it but it was nothing on what she had been feeling this time last month. She slipped the jacket on as she walked back to Danny, grabbing her purse and keys along the way. "Now, I'm ready."

She left the apartment, locking up behind her and followed Danny down the stairs.

"You know, a little less than a month ago I was helping you to walk up these stairs," Danny pointed out and Jess gave him a smile.

"You may be helping me up them later yet," she replied knowing the day was going to take it out of her but she was more than ready for that. The two of them got in his car which he'd conveniently parked right outside the door. "I really should thank you Danny, you've been really great over the last few months and everything you said to me back in the hospital... if you hadn't given me that kick up the ass I'm not sure I'd be here."

"You'd be here Angell, you'd have found a way, I just gave you a much needed nudge," Danny replied "But you're welcome. I told you back then, when it was me, I needed the same kick up the ass and I know after the bombing, Don needed one too. I was there when Mac and Stella gave it to him; they weren't nearly as gentle as I was."

Jess laughed, she'd heard that story from Don. "So what should I be expecting when I get there?"

"I don't know what you mean," Danny played innocent and Jess raised an eyebrow at him. They eventually arrived at the precinct and Jess followed Danny inside, taking a deep breath before she walked into homicide. It was as busy as usual but everything stopped for a moment as she walked in, several people started clapping, followed by everyone else, including the captain. Jess picked Danny to focus her glare on and he shrugged.

She made a quick round of the room, shaking hands, being clapped on the back, one guy clapping her on the shoulder too hard which got him a glare from Danny. It was only a few moments and everyone quickly got back to work but Jess realised just how glad she was to be back. The captain was waiting for her by her desk when she finally made it there.

"It's good to have you back Detective Angell," he told her and she nodded with a smile.

"Thank you sir, it's good to be back," she replied and he gave her another smile before going back to his office and Jess sat down.

"And I'll leave you to your paperwork and phone calls," Danny laughed and left before Jess could hit him.

* * *

Don and Mac were on their way to pick up a suspect, it had been a crazily busy day and neither man had been given much opportunity to stop and breathe. It was a fifteen minute car ride to the suspects apartment and Mac was driving so Don took the opportunity to pull out his phone and call Jess. It had been a week since she'd gotten back to work and she'd done a few short shifts in that time though, she was pulling a slightly longer one today though and he hadn't had the chance to check in with her.

"Angell," a tired, exasperated voice answered.

"You sound like you're having fun," Don replied and when Jess spoke again her voice was a little more alive.

"I've been fielding phone calls from Jersey PD all day, add to that the phone calls I've been making for your case and the amount of paperwork that has been sent my way, I'm going crazy," Jess replied and Don smiled.

"You knew a desk job was going make you crazy," he pointed out and heard her sigh on the end of the line.

"I know, it's driving me mad and this is only my fourth shift," she stated. "I like feeling useful again though, I like being back even if it's just stuck here making phone calls. It's far better than being stuck in the apartment all day."

"I'll bet," Don replied, he remembered his own brief encounters with desk duty, he'd hated it but he'd take it over being stuck at home all day.

"Where are you anyway?" Jess asked him.

"Mac and I are on the way to pick up our suspect, his finger prints were all over the murder weapon," he replied. "How are you doing?"

"I'm exhausted," she admitted. "My shoulder and my stomach are starting to ache, yes, I already took my painkillers. At the moment I'm just looking forward to our shifts ending so you can come and take me home."

"Well, we organised it so your shift would end at the same time as mine and if this guy is where he's supposed to be then this case she be pretty much wrapped up by then," he told her, hoping it was going to be that easy. Her use of the word 'home' was not lost on him either, it was something they were going to have to talk about eventually but neither of them seemed prepared to break the status quo.

"You know, Lindsay stopped by earlier and she was talking about Titanic, don't ask why, but now I've got the weirdest urge to watch the movie so can we stop by the DVD store and get it later?" she questioned as though she was actually asking for his permission.

"But it makes you cry," Don replied, getting an odd look from Mac.

"Please," she pleaded and he could practically see the pout on her face that she knew would get her what she wanted.

"Alright, yes, we can pick Titanic up on the way home. We're almost there so I should probably go," he told her and he heard her sigh again, he felt bad for leaving her to her suffering alone. "I'll talk to you later."

He hung up then and slid the phone back into his pocket, it had been a bad, busy day but talking to her had helped.

"Titanic?" Mac questioned in amusement. "Crying?"

"She can't get through that movie without crying her eyes out," Don told him, shaking his head and making a mental note to pick up some extra tissues.

"I didn't have her down as they type of person to cry at movies," Mac stated.

"You should see her watch Marley and Me," Don replied, grimacing.

"How's she doing now anyway?" Mac asked him.

"Desk duty is driving her crazy but she'd happier there than she was at the apartment all day," Don replied and Mac nodded.

"I can imagine, I might have been wrong about crying at moves but I don't think she's the type to sit still for long," Mac replied and Don laughed.

"You have no idea."

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**Authors Note: Last chapter here, hope you guys enjoy it and thanks to; terriberri23, Storywriter, Runner043, afrozenheart412, jessicaflack and blackandblueangel for the reviews. **

* * *

Chapter 11

It wasn't that he was nervous, Jess already knew exactly who Sam was and he knew his sister would get along well with Jess, maybe a little too well, but he was still apprehensive as he parked the car outside his sister's apartment building. Don gave the building in front of him a wary glance as he got out of the car and heard Jess laugh as she walked around to join him. He turned to her with a glare that only lasted a second as she linked an arm with him and rested her head on his shoulder, a small smirk playing on her lips. She'd not bothered to hide her amusement at his 'not nervousness' since he'd gotten home from work an hour ago.

"You know, I've already spoken to your sister once, twice if you include the time I almost arrested her," Jess said and he could hear the amusement in her voice as she spoke. "You've been laughing since I was in the hospital about your sister not knowing I was the cop that almost arrested her and what her face will look like when she finds out and now that the moment is here you're nervous."

"I'm not nervous" he denied for the millionth time.

Jess laughed. "Of course you're not."

They walked up the few steps of the apartment building and Sam buzzed them in, Don could tell from her voice she was excited and he barely suppressed a groan as he opened the door and allowed Jess to walk through before him. He knocked on Sam's door and waited the few seconds it took for her to open it, grin firmly in place as she invited them in.

"About time, I've been waiting for months for this," she stated and then turned to look at Jess, narrowing her eyes. "I've seen you before."

Jess smiled and looked at Don, he barely kept a straight face as Sam stood there trying to figure out where she'd seen her. He laughed as Sam's eyes widened, recognition flooding her face as she finally remembered.

"Sam, this is Jess, you've met before," he stated and Sam momentarily turned a glare on him before turning back to Jess with a smile.

"Sorry about the beer bottle, not one of my finer moments," she said with a cheerful smile, sucking away the rest of Don's fun. "Dinner should be about half an hour, make yourselves comfortable, can I get you anything?"

Jess shook her head and Don led her over to the couch as Sam walked into the kitchen. "Well, give me a second here and I can start telling you the customary tales of Don's youth."

Don groaned as he sat down next to Jess, this, he was pretty sure, was why he'd been so apprehensive.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Don questioned as he pulled up alongside the crime scene tape. It was her first day back in the field, it had taken a while but she was finally here. She'd had to go to the firing range a few times just to be able to stop flinching every time a gun was fired and her therapist was keeping up their sessions for at least the next couple of weeks but she'd signed her off for active duty. She was a fully functioning homicide detective again, something that, at one point, she feared she'd never be.

"If you ask me that again Don, I'm going to kill you, and you may want to warn them," she replied gesturing toward the house that contained the crime scene and knowing he would know who she meant.

"We care Jess," Don stated. "You can't blame us for caring."

"I don't," she told him. "I will however blame you if you care me all the way into a padded room."

They stepped under the tape, ignoring the couple of reporters that were already sniffing around for the time being. The house was in a nice neighbourhood, white picket fences and tidy gardens. The front of the house gave no indication that any kind of horror had taken place inside, neither did the hallway. It wasn't until they got to the kitchen that they could see any evidence of a crime, Mary Linn Clarke's body was laid beside the kitchen table, pale and bloody.

"Hey Jess," Danny greeted as he looked up from taking pictures of the body. "How are..."

"Danny," Don cut him off and shook his head. "Don't."

Danny smirked and went back to taking pictures as Mac walked over. "Good to have you back Angell."

"Thanks," Jess replied and gestured to the body. "What do we have?"

"Mary Linn Clarke, murdered sometime last night, her three kids found the body when they came down for breakfast this morning. Husband heard screaming and came running down, called 911," Mac explained.

"Where was he last night?" Don questioned wondering how someone could be stabbed to death in their own home and have no one in the house hear a thing.

"Asleep, he said Mary Linn had trouble sleeping, it wasn't uncommon for her to get out of bed at night so he wasn't concerned that she wasn't there. He says he didn't hear anything, he was tired last night so he probably slept straight through any noise. He's outside with a couple of uniforms, he seems pretty distraught," Mac explained glancing at the body Danny was still photographing.

"You believe him?" Don questioned.

"Don't know yet. At the moment we've found no signs of forced entry and he was the last one to see her alive," Mac replied.

"Well, he's definitely a suspect. How old are the kids?" Jess asked.

"Too young to have done this, oldest is twelve and he doesn't have the strength to inflict wounds this deep," Danny said drawing their attention to him and the body.

"If you don't need us here, we'll go canvas the neighbourhood and then talk to the husband and kids, see what we can find out," Don said and Jess followed him out.

* * *

Jess sighed as she sat down on the bench in the locker room hoping the painkillers she'd just taken would kick in soon. She'd known it was a bad idea to start chasing suspects down this soon after she'd returned to working in the field but it wasn't as though she'd had a choice. Mac had been in the bedroom of their suspect's apartment while Jess looked around the living room. Tobias Clarke had come home to find two cops searching his home and made a run for it. She'd called for Mac as she'd chased him out of the apartment but she'd known he wouldn't be able to catch up in time.

She'd chased Tobias down four flights of stairs, down the street and across the road before a passerby purposely knocked into him, slowing him down long enough for her to catch him, the idiot had been fast. Tobias was Mary Linn Clarke's brother, which explained why there had been no forced entry, she'd probably let him in. The husband claimed his wife and her brother had been arguing for weeks about money, she'd lent him several thousand dollars to help him pay off gambling debts but he kept coming back for more until she'd finally said no.

She heard the door to the locker room open and knew it was Don even before he spoke. "At the risk of being killed, how are you feeling?"

Jess smiled and shook her head. "Sore, but I'll live."

He sat down on the bench next to her; he and Mac had done the interrogation. "He lawyered up; we've got to wait for the lawyer to get here before we can continue. Danny called from the lab and said Tobias's fingerprints match those on the murder weapon and his DNA is match to the skin under Mary Linn's fingernails."

"Open and shut case then," Jess replied. Don nodded and stood up, holding his hand out to her and pulling her up with him.

"It was good to have you back out there today," he told her.

"It was good to be back out there," she said and bit her lip. "I have to say though, I didn't think you'd be as... happy about it as you are, I thought you'd take some convincing."

"I worry about you Jess, even before the shooting, I worried about you, that's not going to change. This job is your life though, as much as it is mine, and I would never even have considered you not coming back to it," he explained and she smiled, kissing him quickly.

"Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve you," Jess stated and Don smirked.

"Sometimes I wonder that myself," he replied and Jess hit his arm and walked toward the door.

"Just for that I'm not waiting for you when I get off in an hour," she called back to him as she left, hearing his phone ring and figuring Tobias's lawyer had arrived. She headed to her desk knowing Don would fill her in on whatever she missed later, if she got a head start on the paperwork she could have a good chunk of it done before her shift ended.

* * *

Don sat down beside Jess and put her drink down in front of her. It was the first time they'd all really been out together since before Jess had been shot and it felt good to be returning to something so familiar. The last several months had been tough on all of them, Jess's shooting, coma and recovery, Danny being shot and ending up in a wheelchair for a couple of months. It had created stress and tension throughout the whole team and Don was glad to be getting back to normal.

"How was your first case back?" Stella asked Jess.

"I don't think 'good' is the right word to use for a homicide investigation," Jess replied with a thoughtful expression.

"We know what you mean though," Lindsay said, stopping Danny from repeatedly spinning a coin on the table next to her.

"I'm going to get another drink, anyone want anything?" Danny said as he stood up and walked over to the bar, a couple of drinks orders being called after him.

"Adam, seriously, who do you keep texting?" Stella questioned, trying to look over Adam's shoulder to see. Adam pulled his phone away only for it to be grabbed by Lindsay who quickly handed it over to Stella.

"Can I have that back please?" Adam said trying to lean across for it and stop Stella reading the text.

"Who's Melinda?" Stella questioned holding the phone out of his reach.

"No one," Adam replied, making another grab for the phone. It was taken from Stella's hand by Mac who gave it back to Adam and gave Stella a reproachful look.

"I think the boss has spoken," Hawkes laughed as Stella refrained from teasing Adam anymore. They all finished their drinks and went their separate ways. Don and Jess stopped by the DVD store and a take away on their way back to his place. They both knew that Jess could easily go back to her place now, could have done weeks ago but neither of them said anything, neither of them were prepared to break the status quo yet. Instead they settled on the couch for the night and Jess curled into his side, falling asleep within minutes of finishing her food.

END

**Authors Note: Wow, there it is, finished. I'm not entirely sure what I think of this ending but at least it's done. I hope you guys enjoyed it, thanks to everyone who reviewed and to those who stuck with me from beginning to end despite my bad updating.**


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